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Review
. 2014 Apr;1312(1):66-75.
doi: 10.1111/nyas.12299. Epub 2013 Dec 11.

Processing maize flour and corn meal food products

Jeffrey A Gwirtz  1 , Maria Nieves Garcia-Casal
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Review

Processing maize flour and corn meal food products

Jeffrey A Gwirtz et al. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Apr.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Corn is the cereal with the highest production worldwide and is used for human consumption, livestock feed, and fuel. Various food technologies are currently used for processing industrially produced maize flours and corn meals in different parts of the world to obtain precooked refined maize flour, dehydrated nixtamalized flour, fermented maize flours, and other maize products. These products have different intrinsic vitamin and mineral contents, and their processing follows different pathways from raw grain to the consumer final product, which entail changes in nutrient composition. Dry maize mechanical processing creates whole or fractionated products, separated by anatomical features such as bran, germ, and endosperm. Wet maize processing separates by chemical compound classification such as starch and protein. Various industrial processes, including whole grain, dry milling fractionation, and nixtamalization, are described. Vitamin and mineral losses during processing are identified and the nutritional impacts outlined. Also discussed are the vitamin and mineral contents of corn.

Keywords: corn; flour; food fortification; maize; processing methods.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Components of the corn kernel.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pathways of maize from field to consumer.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematics of dry-milling maize processing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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