retention and drainage performance of the invention where starch modified with a metal silicate provides better drainage compared to the unmodified starch the data further illustrate the metal silicate can be blended with the starch after cooking or added to the starch slurry prior to cooking a series of drainage tests was conducted with the starch blended with the metal silicate at the indicated ratio utilizing the vdt and the data are presented in table 2 the materials methods and addition sequence are as specified in table 1 the data in table 1 illustrate the improved drainage of the inventive process compared to a starch that is not modified with metal silicate improved drainage is noted with higher levels of metal silicate a series of drainage tests was conducted with the starch blended with the metal silicate at the indicated ratio using the vdt and the data are presented in table 3 cato u00ae 232 is a cationic waxy maize starch national starch bridgewater n j stalok u00ae 300 is a cationic corn starch a e staley decatur ill the materials methods and addition sequence are as specified in table 1 the data in table 3 illustrate the drainage improvement provided with the inventive process compared to an unmodified starch using example of waxy maize and corn starch a series of drainage tests was conducted with the vdt with the starch blended with the metal silicate at the indicated ratio the data are presented in table 4 silicate o is sodium silicate possessing a sio 2 na 2 o ratio of 3 22 1 silicate m.