Com tortillas

Sources. Niacin and substances that are convertible to niacin are found naturally in meat (especially red meat), poultry, fish, legumes, and yeast. In addition to preformed niacin, some L-tryptophan found in the proteins of these foods is metabolized to niacin. Niacin is also present in cereal grains, such as corn and wheat. However, consumption of corn-rich diets has resulted in niacin deficiency in certain populations. The reason for this is that niacin exists in cereal grains in bound forms, such as the glycoside niacytin, which exhibit little or no nutritional availability. Interestingly, niacin deficiency is not common in Mexico and Central America even though the diets of those in these countries are based on com. Alkaline treatment, such as soaking corn in a lime solution—the process used by the populations of Mexico and Central America in the production of com tortillas—yields release of bound niacin and increased availability of the vitamin. 

Both amylose and amylopectin are hydrolyzed to glucose with cleavage of the glycosidic bonds. The human digestive system has the necessary a-glucosidase enzymes needed to catalyze this process. Bread and pasta made from wheat flour, rice, and com tortillas are all sources of starch that are readily digested. 

Serna-Saldivar, S.O., Wansika, R.D., and Rooney, L.W. 1993a. Wheat and com tortillas. In Encyclopedia of Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition. R. Macrae, R. Robinson, and M. Sadler (eds.). Academic Press, London. 

Suhendro, E.L., Akneida-Dominguez, H., Rooney, L.W., Waniska, R.D., and Moreira, R.G. 1998b. Tortilla bending technique An objective method for com tortilla texture measurement. Cereal Chem. 75 854—858. 

R. G. Buttery and L. C. Ling, Additional studies on flavor components of com tortilla chips, J. Agric. Food Chem. 46 2764 (1998). 

From a bioavailabihty standpoint, the fact that a significant amount of nicotinic acid is in a bound form has important biological consequences. Poor bioavailabihty stems from the fact that the ester linkage is resistance to digestive enzymes. In the case of com, this condition can be alleviated if com is pretreated with alkah. This food preparation method is frequently practiced in Mexico for the preparation of tortillas. 

Texturization enables the creation of more expanded products with boosted protein levels, which are texturally firmer and crispier products, easier to break than the t)q)ical commeal or cornmeal without TWPI. For example, we developed several directly expanded high-protein com meal products containing 30 g/100 g WPC (WPC80) and WPI. The protot)q5e products were pretzels, com chips, and tortilla chips (Onwulata, 2010). 

Lime Treatment of Corn for Tortilla Preparation. The lime treatment of com for tortilla preparation consists of the following (see Figure 2) a 3 1 mixture of lime water (1.3%, w/v) and dry com grains is... 

Tortillas prepared from mixtures of com with wheat, broadbean, rice, chickpea, and/or potato were studied. These mixes resulted in tortillas of very similar mechanical and sensory properties as those prepared from corn alone. However, the contents of protein and available lysine were in many cases higher (see Table XIII). Such mixtures provide an efficient way to improve the quantity and quality of protein in tortillas. 

Table XIV. Protein Content of Tortillas Prepared from Com and Mixtures of Other Grains and Potato0...

Industrial frying is one of the major segments in the frying industry. Fried food in the United States and other countries are prepared and marketed in various forms. The most popular of these products is the salty snack food segment. This segment consists of a wide variety of products such as potato chips, tortilla chips, com chips, extmded products, pretzels, fried or roasted nuts, and so on. Out of all these products, potato chips has been known to the people for a long time. 

Potato chips and tortilla chips have become household names in North America. Com products are not as common in Europe. Fabricated products can be produced from pellets or from sheeted material made from a preprocessed and formulated mixture of ingredients. The most commonly known products of this category are Pringles made by Procter Gamble co. and Lay s Stax introduced recently by Frito-Lay. Products made from formulated sheets as well as from the pellets are sold as salted as well as seasoned with various seasonings. These products are now popular in most countries. 

The main ingredient in tortilla chips is com. The com is used in two different ways ... 

The chips from the toaster-oven then pass through an equilibrator. This is a chamber with open sides. The chips pass through a series of special conveyor belts. The object is to achieve an even distribution of moisture in the chips. This also makes the chip color and texture more uniform. Moisture of the chips at this stage is around 40% for masa made from cooked com and 30% to 35% for the chips made from dry corn masica. (See Figure 13 for the tortilla system before frying). Temperature of the chips reaches below 100°F (38°C) in the equilibrator. 

Figure 13. Tortilla chip system (Courtesy of Cara Herra Inc.). (This figure is available in full color at http //www.mrw.interscience. wiley.com/biofp.)...

Special Challenges in Frying Coated Products Several products are easy to handle such as potato chips, tortilla chips, com chips, and so on. On the other hand, the coated products are different and require more involved handling before and during frying. 

Glycosides of this vitamin (sometimes denoted as vitamin B3) were not described, however, there exists an evidence that bound niacin from wheat bran (termed niac)4in) has a single nicotinic acid moiety at least partially linked to an aromatic amine with glucose, xylose, and arabinose in a 6 3 1 molar ratio per molecule, with approximately three cinnamic acid esters [152,177,178]. It seems that these glycosidic complexes limit the bioavailability of the nicotinamide and for its liberation they must be treated, e. g., by soaking com in a lime solution, traditionally performed in Central America during production of tortillas [179]. 

Zein, which is the major protein in corn, was chosen because it contains no lysine. This precluded the formation of LAL during alkali treatment. Therefore, any changes in digestibility or uptake could be attributed to racemization effects alone. Additionally, we were interested in comparing the effects of sodium hydroxide treatment with the effects of calcium hydroxide treatment because lime is used in the preparation of corn meal for use in tortillas. If the traditional lime treatment of com meal is unnecessarily harsh, it could have important nutritional consequences because a large segment of the Mexican population obtains much of their dietary protein in the form of tortillas (22). 

Interestingly, fumonisin Bl, a liver-targeting mycotoxin found in com, is detoxified during manufacturing of tortilla chips, partially through its interaction with glucose and formation of the respective Amadori compound and products of its degradation. ... 

Walter, T., Pizarro, F. Olivares, M. (2003) Iron bioavailability in com-masa tortillas is improved by the addition of disodium EDTA. J. Nutr. 133, 3158-3161. 

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