CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF MASA FLOUR AND WHOLE-CORN FLOUR FOR GRAIN-BASED FOODS, USING A NOVEL PRECOOKING

摘要

A process and apparatus for the continuous production of masa and whole- corn flour for grain-based foods, includes a preconditioning of clean corn, grinding the moisturized corn to produce fine and coarse grind fractions, sieving the fine grind and aspirating from both fractions a light-bran fraction as animal feed, remilling the coarse grind for further bran extraction and admixing the sifted fine grind with lime to produce a limed grind, low-moisture precooking of a stream of limed corn particles in another stream of saturated steam to obtain a partial starch pregelatinization and protein denaturation degree, venting and separating the moist-heated corn particles, conditioning the segregated fine grind to soften and swell the endosperm, germ and bran fractions, hot- air drying the tempered fine grind and stabilizing for extended shelf-life, cooling the dried fine grind with clean air; grinding the agglomerated particles, classifying and separating the fine grind so produced from the coarse grind while the latter fraction is further remilled and screened to obtain a pregelatinized flour for tortilla and corn-based foods and an instant flour for whole-grain foods.