Lime-Cooked Snacks

The alkaline cooking or nixtamalization of whole maize has become important in the United States and other parts of the world dne to the increase in popularity of Mexican foods. Three basic types of prodncts are indnstrially produced from alkaline or lime-cooked maize table or soft tortillas, com chips, and tortilla chips (Sema-Saldivar et al. 1990). Corn and tortilla chips are primarily produced and con-snmed in developed countries, where they have an important share within the salted snack food market, whereas table tortillas constitnte the staple food for large groups of people in developing Latin American countries. These prodncts can be produced... 

Latin Americans living in the southwestern states first introduced tortilla products in the United States in the middle of the past century. The rapid and exponential growth in the production and sales of lime-cooked snacks took place mainly during the last two decades of the twentieth century. 

The rapid and exponential growth of the production and sales of lime-cooked snacks took place mainly during the last decade of the twentieth century. These snacks rapidly became popular in other areas of the world as well. Today, corn and tortilla chips are manufactured worldwide. Flat tostadas and tortilla chips are tortillas that are deep-fat fried they are widely used as snacks or vehicles for the preparation of fast foods. For their preparation, nixtamal and red-paprika peppers or annatto are stone-ground into a coarse masa. The red- or orange-colored masa is baked into a tortilla and then fried into a tostada. Tostadas are the base for the preparation of a wide array of meals. Sometimes, they are eaten as a snack with lemon juice and sauces. It is very common to consume tostadas with refried beans, cheese, shredded meats, and vegetables such as lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and radish. Taco shells are the American version of tostadas, the only difference being that they are usually fried bent (U form) and rarely colored. 

Lime-cooked maize snacks are the fastest-growing market within the salted category. In the United States, volume and sales of tortilla chips in 2003 were estimated at 692 million kilograms and more than 4.5 billion in sales (Anonymous 2004). 

Corn chips Snack food produced from nixtamalized maize. The lime-cooked maize is ground into a dough that is extruded into chips and deep-fat fried. The resulting corn chips are usually salted and flavored. Com chips contain about 36% oil. 

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