To provide a reference on the study of protein-starch conjugate,the formation and secondary structure of whey protein isolate-soluble starch(SS) conjugate prepared by dry-heating method were investigated.The indexes of significant changes in A294,browning intensity,free amino groups content and SDS-PAGE showed that WPI-SS conjugate was successfully prepared based on Maillard reaction under dry-heating.The results also showed that more incubation time significantly promoted glycosylation in the WPI-SS mixture.Meanwhile,the secondary structure of whey protein isolate had a considerable loss due to the covalent attachment of high molecular weight starch;the surface hydrophobicity of whey protein was reduced.