Food ingredient company National Starch said this week that in response to increasing demand it has expanded its capacity to produce cold-water-swelling (CWS) or instant starches at its Indianapolis manufacturing facility.
The company has spent E48.6 million on the expansion project that will increase manufacturing capacity and improve packaging for this product line.
National Starch's director of CWS products, Robert Kendall, said: "This investment was a direct result of the high demand for ULTRA-TEX and ULTRA-SPERSE starches.
"The food industry prefers the convenience of CWS starches since they also provide the same functionality as cook-up starches," claimed Kendall.
A new state-of-the-art packaging facility has been constructed and all of National's spray dried, agglomerated and drum dried products manufactured at Indianapolis will benefit from new packaging. The facility start-up is expected during the first quarter of 2002.
National Starch hopes to offer customers a choice of packaging ranging from standard bags and bulk bags to new highly efficient and functional boxes. National Starch is also changing from drums to corrugated boxes for improved storage and handling benefits. The new box should prevent compression of fragile starch particles, ease handling and permit higher stacking for more efficient warehousing.