Sometimes reading food labels can seem a little mysterious. Ingredients like milk, eggs, and whole wheat pastry flour are all pretty self-explanatory, but what about the other things that are sometimes found listed as ingredients? You know, the ones that aren’t readily recognizable as food or even that easy to pronounce. Today we’ll look at three such items: Maltodextrin, Dextrin and Dextrose.
Maltodextrin is a food additive that is created by taking corn or potato starch, boiling it down and then using acids or enzymes to break the starch down even further, leaving only a white powder. This powder is then used in many packaged foods like granolas, chips, and cereals, often times as filler, but also to create texture. In the US and Canada, Maltodextrin is always made from corn or potatoes, but in other parts of the world, it is sometimes made from wheat or barley. That is something to definitely keep in mind if you eat a gluten free diet.
Like Maltodextrin, Dextrin is also a starch, but with a slightly different function. In the US, it’s usually made from corn, potato, arrowroot, rice or tapioca but, also like maltodextrin, wheat is sometimes used elsewhere (so again, celiacs and those who don’t eat gluten, beware)!
“White dextrin” is the additive that is used as a binder to hold ingredients together or as a thickening agent (think cornstarch to thicken sauces). It can also be found in batters, coatings, and glazes. “Yellow dextrin” is not used for food at all, but is a water-soluble glue, which is not appetizing at all (thank you, Wikipedia).
Finally, we have Dextrose. Dextrose is a simple sugar. It can occur naturally in some fruit and honey, but industrial-produced dextrose is usually made from cornstarch and…wait for it…is the main ingredient in corn syrup. Because dextrose browns when heated, it’s added to a lot of mass-produced baked goods as well.
Are there any other puzzling food labeling terms that you’re curious about? Let us know!
Print 
PDF
what are Polysorbate 80 and mono and dyglycerides?
Thanks for the great question Abby. We’ll see if we can find you a good answer.
Great breakdown! I believe in the US if these ingredients are sourced from wheat they must be labeled as such.
Nice article! But really makes you wonder–who was the first person who boiled and boiled and boiled some starch, then added it to their morning cereal thinking, hey, I bet this makes my cereal more crunchy.
Hi Abby:
Polysorbate 80 – in foods, is used as an emulsifier in items like ice creams and whipped toppings to make them smoother and easier to work with. It’s made form polyoxylated sorbitol (I honestly have not been able to slueth out exactly what this is yet) and oleic acid (a monounsaturated fatty acid found in many natural sources, such as avocados).
Mono- and diacylglycerols are fats, also used as emulsifiers, to blend together ingredients which would not otherwise blend easily (like oil and water). They are derived primarily from partially hydrogenated soy bean and canola oil. They can be found in baked goods, ice cream, gum, shortening, whipped toppings, and margarine.
Now we know WHAT they are… but what do they DO to our bodies? I can’t seem to find anything saying definitively whether these three processed ingredients are good or bad for me.
I wish we could answer that for you, but the jury’s still out on that as far as we can tell.
Dextrose = glucose, the simple sugar that is your body’s main energy source. Other foods are converted to energy (calories) mainly as they are broken down into glucose during digestion. Fructose is another simple sugar that is much sweeter than glucose. Grapes contain about equal parts glucose and fructose, other fruits have less glucose. White granulated sugar = sucrose = glucose + fructose. Glucose + water = IV drip.
I read that dextrin is used as a laxative, like psycillium (sp?) husks. Can maltodextrin be used the same way as dextrin for that purpose?
Thank you for your answers above. I frequently purchase Bob’s Red Mill products since many are gluten free and I live a long way from a health food store. Originally I surfed the net to find out more about maltodextrin used in Spring Valley’s Stevia (copyright). Finding your article answered many questions. I am trying to go gluten-free for overall health and suspect I have a sensitivity to it. As an RN, I had to laugh at the above comment…sugars = IV drip.
Valentina, as Michael Pollan says, if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it. I doubt Granny had a box of maltodextrin in her cabinet.
I am allergic to artificial sweetner. Should any of these be a problem for me? One bite destroys me. I read labels, but something got to me today. Please help!!!
Betty,
You really need to ask your doctor. We don’t know enough about these sweeteners to know if they would cause you to have an allergic reaction.
I and bunches of others are severely intolerant of maltodextrin. We don’t know why. My/our medical professionals & chemists don’t know why and claim maltodextrin is completely safe as does the FDA. Coming up with information has been impossible.
Have you heard any information as to why some individuals may be maltodextrin intolerant with severe GI intolerance – and there may be other physical manifestations as well?
I have two hypotheses but this is complete speculation: 1. The chemicals used to further break down maltodextrin may remain in trace chemicals in the substance (much as the concerns about using bleach in the decaffeination process or bleaching white flour or sugar) or 2. That the “sugar” of the malt used in manufacture may be what we are not tolerating.
Thanks for any info you might find.
Hi Sue,
I’m so sorry, but we just do not know enough about it to answer your questions.
WHY IS MALTODEXTRIN ADDED TO NATURAL STEVIA (IN THE PACKET FORM AS SOLD IN THE HEALTH FD SECTION AT A LARGE RETAILER)? THANK YOU FOR THIS FORUM…
Yvette,
I am sorry, but we do not know the answer to this question. You should contact the stevia manufacturer.
Regarding such mass marketed products as Stevia in the Raw, the maltodextrin seems more like a filler. Real powdered stevia can be bought in real health food stores and the powder is very fine, unlike Stevia in the Raw. Stevia powder is 300 times the sweetness of table sugar and takes some getting used to. It takes very lttle of the powder to make beverages sweet. There may be a slght aftertaste,but at least it is has no ill effects on blood sugar for sensitive types like myself.
You should get the Stevia drops from Naturamed.com. They don’t have any Maltodextrin
This reply is for ‘Sue’ above.
If you have a problem with maltodextrin, it may be due to either an allergy to the corn it’s made from (usually GMO), and/or possibly if it’s made from potatoes, you could have a reaction to the solanine in the potato. Potatoes, (and tomatoes, peppers, etc) are members of the nightshade family, and can produce severe symptoms and disease, including arthritis, intestinal problems, fibromyalgia, muscle weakness and other serious conditions.
The problem with maltodextrin is the fact that it is made from corn or potatoes. Since virtually all corn in the U.S. is now GMO, that is a bad thing and one that concerns me most. All GMO crops have been shown to be toxic even in Monsanto’s own studies (although no media coverage in the U.S.).