Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-28
2001-07-24
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
C426S463000, C426S507000, C426S626000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06265013
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to a process for the preparation of nixtamalized whole corn for the preparation of tortillas, nixtamalized corn flour and corn and tortilla chips. Fractions pericarp, germ, and endosperm of any genotype of corn, lime or a substitute, and water are used as starting materials.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
Corn was the principal source of food for the pre-Columbian civilizations of the New World. Today corn tortillas and derivative products are still the staple food of Mexico and Central America. Also, corn tortilla, corn chips, and tortilla chips have widely penetrated the market of the United States and some countries of Asia and Europe. The tortilla industry represents one fifth of the global food market in Mexico. The nixtamalization process involves alkaline cooking, steeping, washing, and stone-grinding of the cooked grains to produce masa. Corn masa is kneaded and molded, then baked on a hot griddle to produce table tortillas, which can be fried for tortilla chips and taco shells. Fresh masa can be kneaded, molded, cut, and fried for corn chips, or dried to produce nixtamalized corn flour. In Mexico, approximately 70% of the total corn production is consumed in the form of tortillas. Among the low income population, tortilla is the main source of calories and proteins.
The traditional method to process corn into tortillas (nixtamalization) goes back to early Mesoamerican civilizations, and the basic steps of the process have remained basically unaltered since. The traditional process, whole corn is cooked in a boiling water-lime (or water-ash) solution for a short time (5-45 min) and stepped in this solution, as it cools, for a period of 12 to 18 hours. The cooking liquor, called nejayote, is discarded; with it is lost the fraction of the pericarp and germ dissolved in the nejayote. The cooked, steeped, and drained corn grains (nixtamal) are washed to remove excess lime; here again, a part of pericarp and germ material is lost; the total corn fraction lost varies from 7 to 15%. The nixtamal is ground with a pestle and stone into masa. Finally, the masa is flattened into thin disks that are cooked on a hot griddle for 30-60 seconds on each side to produce tortillas. Tortillas prepared by the traditional method just described generally show excellent rheological characteristics, such as puffing and elastic strength.
Masa for tortilla can also be obtained by hydration of instant flour, which in turn is made from drying fresh masa. Although the quality of tortilla made from instant flour is inferior to that made from fresh masa, the industrial production of nixtamalized corn flour has become popular among the small and large tortilla producers because of its advantages insofar as distribution and storage are concerned.
However the quality of tortillas made from instant flour is usually poorer than the quality of tortillas made with the traditional method. Diverse methods for making tortillas are shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,893, issued to W. R. Lloyd and R. Millares-Sotres, February 1952; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,704,257 issued to Sollano and Berriozabal, March, 1955.
Prior efforts have been directed towards the improvement of the stability of the end products, the reduction of cooking time, the reduction of losses of alkali-soluble substances, and to improve the quality of the final product to a level set by the traditional method (U.S. Pat. No. 2,704,257, issued to C. S. F. Diez de Sollano, and J. M. Berriozabal on Mar. 15, 1955.
Although this method represents an improvement over the traditional nixtamalization process, it requires the use of very costly equipment that is difficult to control.
Manuel Jesus Rubio in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,732, reported an increase in the yield of masa by incorporating water alkaline soluble substances. Also, Rubio reported that adding alkali soluble substances to masa retards spoilage of tortillas. However, the tortillas tend to become hard and brittle.
E. L. Wimmer et al in their U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,986, issued on Oct. 8, 1968, reported a method of manufacturing a corn flour with a rich whole corn flavor, different from flour obtained by lime treatment. This patent teaches how to partially gelatinize a previously prepared corn meal with a closely adjusted heated rotating rolls. The resulting flakes are thereafter ground to obtain corn flour. The instant flour obtained by this process can be used for fried snacks but not for the manufacture of tortillas.
Mexican patent No. 125,285, issued to Celorio on Apr. 25, 1972, describes a different process and apparatus for the preparation of nixtamalized corn flour by using a dry process in which a previously prepared corn meal with an appropriate amount of lime is heated in a chamber. However, it may be regarded as producing poor results in view of the fact that mixing of the corn meal and the lime in a powdered state, produces inhomogeneities in the nixtamalization process, with the consequent difficulties in quality control of the corn flour obtained by said process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,018 issued to Rubio, M. J. on Apr. 23, 1985, discloses a continuous method for producing corn flour suitable for making tortillas, taco shells, tortilla chips and the like, which uses a modified nixtamalization process which includes the precooking of corn grains in the presence of lime within a vessel provided with a screw conveyor, although the main problems of the traditional method remain.
Special attention should be given to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,260 issued to M. C. Vaqueiro, and P. Reyes on Jun. 10, 1986,. This patent teaches a technology wherein, the hull is removed from the germ and endosperm of the corn kernel, nixtamalized by the traditional method, and then re-mixed with the non nixtamalized endosperm and germ fractions. This method, although more efficient than the traditional method in view of the fact that only a small fraction of the corn kernel has to be nixtamalized, produces contaminated effluents, involves longer processing times and requires rather elaborate equipment to separate the hull fraction. Also the hull must be free of endosperm fractions in order to produce a good quality of masa for instant flour preparation.
Other methods of instant flour production have been proposed by Montemayor and Rubio in the paper “Alkaline cooked corn flour: Technology and uses in tortilla and snack products, Cereal Foods World 28:577, 1983, and in Molina, M. R., Letona, M. And Bressani, R. 1977, Drum drying technology for the improved production of instant tortilla flour, J. Food Sci. 42:1432-1434.
Some of these processes involve grinding the whole corn grain and to the over-gelanitization of the starch granules are exposed or low hydrolysis of the pericarp could ocurr, resulting in a masa of poor quality. The cooker-extruders function as a continuous cooking process in which starch gelatinization and puffing of the extrudate are avoided (Serna-Saldivar, S. O., Gomez, M. H., and Rooney, L. W. 1990. Technology, chemistry and nutritional value of alkaline-cooked corn products. Chapter 4. In: Advances in Cereal Science and Technology. Vol. X., Y. Pomeranz (ed) p. 243-307. American Association of Cereal Chemists. St. Paul, Minn.)
Unfortunately, none of these methods provide an integral solution to the tortilla industry. They either solve all problems to an adequate level but use complicated and expensive processes, or they retain the drawback of the traditional process. Our process is simple and inexpensive and addresses all the problems found in the tortilla production.
Many efforts have been expanded on for a better understanding of the nixtamalization process. However, these studies have been focused only on the changes that take place in the protein, starch, and lipids components, without considering the importance of the outer layers of the grain (pericarp fraction). The process of the present invention shows the importance of the pericarp fraction and how it can be treated efficiently for preparing fresh masa and nixtamalized corn flour for the preparati
Martinez-Bustos Fernando
Martinez-Montes Jose De La Luz
Ruiz-Torres Maximiano
Sanchez-Sinencio Feliciano
Abelman ,Frayne & Schwab
Instituto Politecnico Nacional
Yeung George C.
LandOfFree
Selective nixtamalization process for the production of... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Selective nixtamalization process for the production of..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Selective nixtamalization process for the production of... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2479190