Effect of different salts on total phenolic compounds and their bioactivity during the development of a sustainable nixtamalization process using a fractional factorial design

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of the combination of different factors involved in the development of a sustainable process of maize nixtamalization using a fractional factorial design (26‐2) to evaluate pH, percentage of dry matter, water absorption capacity and total phenolic content. The optimization was carried out using the global desirability function. Therefore, optimal conditions were applied for the evaluation of the bioactivity of phenolic compounds through antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, and these characteristics were compared with the traditional nixtamalization process. In general, the global desirability function was 0.872 which indicated that the nixtamalization process was adequate. The process under optimum conditions retained higher phenolic compounds than the traditional process and presented higher antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The optimized nixtamalization process can be used to obtain maize nixtamal with greater retention of bioactive compounds and a process that generates a positive impact on the environment. Practical applications The sustainable process of nixtamalization of white creole maize, optimizing the use of different salts, cooking, and rest times of the grain to obtain a nixtamal with greater retention of phenolic compounds in comparison with the traditional process. Also, the proposed sustainable nixtamalization process allows to reduce the negative impact on the environment and is an important tool for the evaluation of different factors that affect the process.