Tortilla

Bakery Products. Sorbates are used in and/or on yeast-raised and chemically leavened bakery products. The internal use of sorbates in yeast-raised products at one-fourth the amount of calcium—sodium propionate that is normally added provides a shelf life equal to that of propionate without adversely affecting the yeast fermentation. Sorbates added at one-tenth the propionate level reduce the mix time by 30% (126). This internal treatment combined with an external spray of potassium sorbate can provide the same or an increased shelf life of pan breads, hamburger and hot-dog buns, English muffins, brown-and-serve roUs, and tortillas. The total sorbate useful in or on these baked goods ranges from 0.03 wt % for pan breads to 0.5 wt % for tortillas 0.2—0.3 wt % sorbic acid protects chemically leavened yellow and chocolate cakes (127). Emit-pie fillings and icings can be protected with 0.03—0.1 wt % sorbates. 

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). 

Maize. Bread is made from maize flour in Latin America. Mexican tortillas are an unleavened maize bread, i.e. they are essentially chapatis made from maize rather than wheat flour. 

Niacin is found in many foods, including corn. The niacin in corn, however, cannot be absorbed in the intestinal tract. In regions of the world where corn is a major part of the diet, niacin deficiency can occur. If you add calcium oxide or wood ash to the water in which you boil corn, the resulting basic solution allows the niacin to be absorbed. The flour for making corn tortillas is commonly prepared using this method. 

Most manufacturing processes do not detoxify aflatoxin and therefore if the aflatoxins are not detected, products will be marketed. One of the processes used for reducing aflatoxin levels is nixtamalization (alkaline cooking), which is used during the making of corn tortillas, tortilla chips, and corn chips, and gives a 51 to 78% reduction in aflatoxin levels (Torres et al., 2001). 

Deoxynivalenol and T-2 toxin levels may be reduced in pasta during boiling as toxins are passed into the cooking water (Scott, 1991). In tortilla production, only 18 to 28% of trichothecene content remained after boiling in a calcium hydroxide solution as part of the tortilla-making process (Abbas et al., 1988). Trichothecenes are unstable in the presence of alkali. 

Abbas, H.K. et al., Decomposition of zearalenone and deoxynivalenol in the process of making tortilla from corn, Cereal Chem., 65, 15, 1988. 

Torres, P., Guzman-Ortiz, M. and Ramirez-Wong, B., Revising the role of pH and thermal treatments in aflatoxin content reduction during the tortilla and deep frying processes, J. Agric. Food Chem., 49, 2825, 2001. 

Some plants regularly eaten by humans contain neurotoxins that pose serious health problems. On Guam, for example, the seeds of Cycas circinalis used to be an important source of carbohydrates. Seeds of Cycas rumphii were ground into flour for tortillas. However, the seeds contain jS-N-methylamino-i-alanine, a suspected excitotoxin that overstimulates and destroys nerve cells. This compound causes a parkinsonism-like disease in macaques (Spencer et al, 1987). Other toxins have been proposed to be responsible for the disease, among them cycasin, another cycad toxin (Stone, 1993). 

Moreira, R. G., Palau, J., Sweat, V., and Sun, X. (1995a). Thermal and physical properties of tortilla chips as a function of frying time. ]. Food Process. Preservation 19,175-189. 

Tseng, Y., Moreira, R., and Sun, X. (1996). Total frying-use time effects on soybean-oil deterioration and on tortilla chip quality. Int. J. Food Sci. Technol. 31, 287-294. 

United States (California) Thallium Barley laced with thallium sulfate, used as a rodenticide, is stolen and used to make tortillas 13 family members hospitalized with neurological symptoms 6 deaths... 

Moreira, R. G., Sun, X., Chen, Y. (1997). Faetors affeeting oil uptake in tortilla chips in deep-fat frying. Journal of Food Engineering, 31,485 98. 

Sufficient protein can generally be obtained in a vegetarian diet by combining a legume, such as peas or beans, with a grain, such as wheat or corn. Familiar meals containing such a combination include a peanut butter sandwich, corn tortillas and refried beans, and rice and toffi. 

Synthetic, fat-tike substances Lhat arc resistant to hydrolysis by digestive enzymes. One type is a mixture of the hexa-to-octaesters of sucrose others are esterified propoxylated glycerols and dialkyl dihexadecylmalonate (DDM), which has been used in potato and tortilla chips trialkoxytricarbaliate-tricarballic acid esterified with fatty alcohols, currently under trial for use in margarine- and mayonnaise-type products. 

Figure 18. Tortilla chip fried for one minute and observed directly in an ESEM (A and Q showing the presence of oil in air tunnels. Defatted samples were prepared for conventional SEM observations (B and D). (A x300 B x 25 C x 200 D x 25). [From 63].

Corn Corngrits Macaroni Flour tortilla Popcorn (in oil) Dry roasted peanuts... 

Ghosh et al. (2004) reported the effects of ground flaxseed on wheat flour tortilla quality. Ground flaxseed addition significantly increased water absorption and decreased dough strength. However, the presence of nonstarch... 

Ghosh, P., Chakraborty, M., Sorenson, B., Berzonsky, W.A., and Hall, C., Ill 2004. Effects of ground flaxseed on the processing and quality parameters of wheat flour tortilla. Presented at AACC Annual Meeting Conference, San Diego, CA. 

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