Also known as: glucose polymer, corn maltodextrin, DE 10–20
Maltodextrin
·By Croix
What is maltodextrin?
Maltodextrin is a glucose polymer made by partial hydrolysis of corn or tapioca starch. Each chain is roughly 10–20 glucose units long, which is why it has a moderate dextrose equivalent (DE) of about 10–20 — the higher the DE, the closer it behaves to free dextrose.
It's nearly tasteless (about a tenth as sweet as table sugar), dissolves quickly in cold water, and is the cheapest credible glucose source you can buy in bulk. It's also the carb that drives almost every high-carb commercial product — Maurten, SiS Beta Fuel, Precision PF 30, and Skratch (in their non-HBCD products) are all built on maltodextrin.
How does it work in a sports drink?
Once maltodextrin hits the gut, amylase enzymes break it down into free glucose almost instantly. From the body's perspective it's effectively as fast as dextrose. The win is osmotic: ten glucose units bound into one chain only contribute one particle to osmolality, so you get the same energy with roughly 1/10th the osmotic pressure.
That's why drinks above ~6% carb concentration almost always use maltodextrin (or a similar polymer) instead of free dextrose. The 8% gastric-emptying threshold is real: a 10% dextrose drink sits in your stomach; a 10% maltodextrin drink doesn't.
How do I use it at home?
For a 1:0.8 glucose-to-fructose drink at 80 g/hr (the Maurten / SiS target): roughly 44 g of maltodextrin plus 36 g of fructose in 500 ml of water.
Maltodextrin has effectively no flavor, so the drink will taste only as sweet as the fructose makes it (~0.7× table sugar at this ratio). Add citric or malic acid plus a pinch of natural flavor for a recognizable sports-drink profile.
Bulk maltodextrin is generally not third-party-tested for sport. If you compete under WADA / NSF Certified for Sport rules, source from a certified vendor instead.
Dose & usage at a glance
- Typical drink concentration
- 5–8% w/v
- Per-hour intake at 1:0.8 ratio (60 g/hr)
- ~33 g maltodextrin
- Per-hour intake at 1:0.8 ratio (90 g/hr)
- ~50 g maltodextrin
- Sweetness vs sucrose
- ≈0.1× (nearly tasteless)
Where to buy it in bulk
We primarily recommend Nutricost-brand products (made in GMP-compliant, FDA-registered facilities, third-party tested), with NOW Foods or BulkSupplements as fallbacks for ingredients Nutricost doesn't stock. The list below shows every channel that carries the product — Nutricost direct, iHerb, and Amazon — sorted by unit price. Pack sizes vary across retailers, so the lowest $/g usually means the largest pack — pick whichever store and size fits your usage. Links are affiliate — the site earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. For ingredients none of the three brands carries (HBCD, table salt, sucrose) we describe the typical specialty- or grocery-store option and skip the affiliate link.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Nutricost — Nutricost Maltodextrin Powder (8 lb)3629g pack · $1.05 per 100 g$37.95Buy
- Amazon (Nutricost) — Nutricost Maltodextrin Powder (2 lb) — via Amazon907g pack · $1.21 per 100 g$10.99Buy
- iHerb (Nutricost) — Nutricost Maltodextrin, Unflavored, 64.8 oz (1,815 g) — via iHerb1815g pack · $1.37 per 100 g$24.95Buy
DIY teardowns that use maltodextrin
- DIY Maurten 320: the same 1:0.8 formula for a fraction of the price
- DIY SiS Beta Fuel: the most copyable branded fuel on the shelf
- DIY Precision PF 30: replace the fuel, not the sweat test
3 teardowns— all walk through how maltodextrinfits into the specific commercial product's formulation.