National Starch: Goole Operations

National Starch Food Innovation is a leading global supplier of nature-based functional and nutritional ingredients, starch and sweetener solutions to the food and beverage industries. With more than 10,000 employees, the company is active in approximately 50 countries, operating a worldwide network of manufacturing facilities, ingredient development centres and sales offices as a producer of valueadded ingredients.

National Starch can trace their roots back over 120 years to a series of mergers by regional starch product companies in the USA that served the wallpaper, textile and envelope markets. These merged businesses formed what was known as the National Starch Company of New Jersey. In 1939, the company purchased its first starch refinery. In the following decade, National Starch’s scientists began unlocking the potential of natural polymers by developing the first waxy maize starches, the first patented cross-linked starches and the first cross-linked waxy maize starches. These new speciality starches had a significant impact on processed foods because they had superior thickening properties, longer shelf life and contributed to improved texture and appearance.

Expanding their research capability, National Starch began to develop new maize hybrids to build in starch properties that could further benefit the food industry, cementing our reputation as a science-based ingredient supplier that could deliver new types of functionality from agricultural materials. Over the last 25 years, the company has broadened their natural polymer starch portfolio with tapioca, rice, sago palm and potato, delivering more options to solve increasingly complex processing challenges. National Starch Food Innovation offers more than 200 types of speciality starches, both cook-up and instant, for a wide range of food and beverage applications.

Applications of National Starch’s products include baked goods, beverages, dairy, savoury, infant and clinical nutrition.

A subsidy of Corn Products International, the company has a strong focus on delivering innovation to meet market and consumer trends in wholesome, clean label products, texture, nutrition / wellness / vitality and delivery systems. This vision combined with an extensive product range, which is tailored according to regional requirements, market insights and technical expertise makes National Starch Food Innovation / Corn Products International a partner of choice for the next generation of food producers. The recent acquisition of National Starch Food Innovation by Corn Products International has resulted in the company having a greater portfolio of products and expertise to offer the marketplace.

Goole production

The National Starch Food Innovation / Corn Products International Goole site was built and commissioned for use in 1939 and remains a key manufacturing plant for the global business. The plant is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and produces the company’s pre – gelatinised food starch, blended food starch and starch for industrial applications. The specialty starches manufactured at the site are derived from maize, tapioca and potato and can be used in food products as wide ranging as soups, sauces, yoghurts, juices and ready meals. The ingredients enable manufacturers to overcome many challenges associated with industrial food processing such as flavour, texture, appearance, fat replacement and nutritional enhancement.

Quality control and assurance

Quality control and assurance is integral to all manufacturing plants operated by National Starch Food Innovation. The Goole site has strict controls to promote product quality and compliance with applicable food hygiene standards. The company also has stringent safety measures in place in order to help protect the safety of all staff on site. Since 1939, technology has been consistently updated to fit changing industry criteria and standards including the introduction of computer-based software and operations.

The Datachek management software, for example, from Lock Inspection Systems, provides constant monitoring of the metal detectors on the food line. The software helps to ensure that routine checks and calibrations are carried out at the requested frequency. It also records whether there has been any activation of the detectors, resulting in the contaminated material being rejected and root cause analysis being activated. This helps to diagnose any metal-related contamination issues before the product leaves the site with real-time measurements.

Production and efficiency

Traceability is a key to our service offering. Our customers increasingly need to communicate product and ingredient origins to consumers. We therefore track our production process to deliver more transparency to our customers. The Datachek software provides electronic, central, historical data that can be used as evidence in case of an audit or any issues. Data can be viewed quickly and efficiently, demonstrating our compliance with applicable standards. The process is much faster than relying on paper records.

Safety and quality control is a main focus for National Starch Food Innovation in order to provide our customers with the best quality ingredients. The Datachek software enables the company to maintain practices that result in products that exceed customer expectations. Traceability and processing transparency are integral to building trust with our customers and demonstrating our continued commitment to delivering high quality products. Using the software, system operators are able to change product setups, control various statistical parameters and collect data from each system.