Nixtamalisation of maize (Zea maysL) using a single screw cook‐extrusion process on lime‐treated grits

Abstract

: The tortilla flour market is expanding but present industrial production is lagging behind in the use of modern technologies to increase production and cut costs due to the maize steeping and drying operations. A process using a singlescrew cook-extruder which eliminates the traditional steeping and drying operations was therefore explored. Lime (Ca(OH),) suspension was absorbed onto commercial maize grits (2 g lime kg-' maize) and the resulting meal conditioned to various moisture contents. These samples and one which had not been lime-treated were cook-extruded through a Brabender Do-corder extrusion cooker (Type 825602). The dry extrudate was milled through a I50 pm sieve and tortillas made from each sample. The tortillas prepared from the lime-treated grits conditioned to 472 g kg-' moisture compared favourably with that prepared from traditionally prepared masa flour when organoleptically assessed. Flour pasting properties (viscosity) and water absorption index were not significantly different ( P < 0.05) from the traditionally prepared products. Enzyme susceptible starch index did not correlate well with dough quality.

Effect of Malting and Nixtamalization Processes on the Physicochemical Properties of Instant Extruded Corn Flour and Tortilla Quality

“…It indicates that extruded malted flours were higher in WAI that extruded un-malted flours. The results of our flours had higher WAI values than those reported by other authors [4,[15][16][17][18], possibly due to the changes in malting corn and the extrusion conditions used. Furthermore, differences in the WAI were found between flours extruded at different feed moisture contents ( Table 2).…”

Structural, functional, thermal and rheological properties of nixtamalised and extruded blue maize (Zea maysL.) flour with different calcium sources

“…). Similar results were reported by Mensah‐Agyapong & Horner () and Zazueta‐Morales et al . () for maize extrusion with Ca(OH) 2 .…”

“…The NFs prepared using either calcium source displayed lower WAI, and the NF with C 6 H 10 O 6 Ca exhibited the lowest WAI. The highest values of WAI in the EF can be attributed to starch damage, caused by the extrusion cooking, which could lead to cohesive and sticky masa, yielding tortillas slightly hard (Mensah‐Agyapong & Horner (), but with probable applications for maize snacks.…”

Propiedades funcionales de harinas de maíz nixtamalizado obtenidas por extrusión a baja temperatura

“…En general, el cocimiento por extrusión se realiza en condiciones de temperatura alta (90-120°C), baja humedad y cortos tiempos de proceso, sin la generación de efluentes contaminantes (Harper, 1990). Varios autores han reportado la extrusión como una opción para la fabricación de harina y masa nixtamalizada (Gutiérrez-Dorado et al, 2008;Martínez-Bustos et al, 1996;Mensah-Agyapong & Horner William, 1992), sin embargo, el método aún no sustituye el proceso tradicional, debido a que las características de harinas obtenidas por este tratamiento son diferentes a las de la nixtamalización tradicional (Gómez-Aldapa, Martínez-Bustos, Figueroa, & Ordorica, 1999). Durante la extrusión, ocurren transiciones en el almidón que provocan mayor grado de gelatinización comparado con el proceso tradicional de nixtamalización.…”