Native tapioca starch is a single-ingredient product, but producing it consistently takes a controlled, multi-stage process. Understanding the steps helps buyers know what drives quality — and what to ask a supplier about. Here’s how fresh cassava root becomes finished starch.
1. Sourcing and intake
It starts with fresh cassava roots, ideally processed soon after harvest while the starch content is highest. Roots are weighed and inspected at intake. Local sourcing — TQ Industry Starch sources from farms in and around Sa Kaeo — shortens the time from field to factory.
2. Washing and peeling
Roots are washed to remove soil and stones, then de-sanded and peeled. Clean intake is the foundation of a low-ash, bright-white finished starch.
3. Rasping and extraction
The peeled roots are rasped into a fine pulp to rupture the cells and release the starch granules. The pulp is then mixed with water and passed through extractors and screens that separate the starch milk from the fibre (the fibrous residue is recovered as a by-product).
4. Separation and refining
The starch milk is purified in centrifugal separators to remove protein and soluble impurities. This is the stage that most affects whiteness, purity, and ash — see what these mean on a Certificate of Analysis.
5. Dewatering and drying
The refined starch slurry is dewatered (typically by vacuum filtration) into a wet cake, then flash-dried to the target moisture. Drying is carefully controlled — too much heat damages the starch, too little leaves it prone to spoilage.
6. Sieving, testing, and packing
The dried starch is sieved to the required fineness, then tested against its specification before release. Approved lots are packed into 30 kg bags or 500/850 kg jumbo bags (FIBC) under a certified food-safety system.
Because no chemical modification is used, the result is native tapioca starch — see native vs modified. The whole chain, from sourcing to packing, runs under FSSC 22000 at TQ Industry Starch’s plant in Sa Kaeo, Thailand, at around 150 metric tons per day.
Want lot-specific specifications or a sample? Send us your requirement and our team will respond.