The rate of processes such as water transfer, gelatinization, loss of soluble solids, volumetric expansion etc. occurring during hydrothermal treatment of whole starchy foods exhibits one common behavior: The plots of the rate constant specific to the given process versus temperature give a break-point temperature (T-bre) around the gelatinization temperature (T-gel). Some workers connected this phenomenon to starch gelatinization. The review of the pertinent works exhibited that the T-bre values are in the ranges of the gelatinization temperatures given in the literature. These ranges are large enough that the observed T-bre values could readily be within or close to them. The break-point phenomenon may potentially be a non-invasive simple method for determining the T-gel in whole starchy foods, e.g. in situ T-gel. This potential must be tested on different types of starchy foods by comparing the T-bre with measured T-gel of the same sample. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.