Products we commonly buy at the supermarket, such as tortillas and corn chips, are made from food grade corn.
Products we commonly buy at the supermarket, such as tortillas and corn chips, are made from food grade corn. The corn is grown, harvested, bought by a food company, turned into masa (dough from ground corn) through a chemical process, and then made into our favorite products.
Each of these important steps has implications for the next — and some scientists are calling for more research to make each step better to benefit both companies and consumers.
“Breeding, production, and processing of food grade corn is a massive industry,” explains Candice Hirsch from University of Minnesota. “Yet, there is limited knowledge on each of these steps.”
She adds that each step of this value chain spans many scientific areas. This results in the information being spread across scientists who don’t regularly communicate with each other. To start tackling this problem, Hirsch and her team reviewed knowledge on making corn into food products. They used information from both universities and industry.
Read more at American Society of Agronomy
Image: Yellow food grade corn hybrid at harvest time in the field. CREDIT: Jonathan Renk
