Abstract: A bland-tasting starch is prepared by stirring a starch having a distinct cereal or root taste in aqueous slurry form with an acid at about pH 3-5 for at least about 25 minutes, adding an alkaline earth metal oxide to a pH of 5.5 to 8 and stirring, and thereafter filtering the slurry and drying the starch. In a preferred aspect the acid is sulfuric acid, the oxide is calcium or magnesium oxide and the starch is waxy maize. When the starch is dried by drum-drying, a pregelatinized starch is obtained. The resulting starch will not adversely affect the taste of foodstuffs to which it is added.