What is “food grade” corn?
Food grade corn, also referred to as hard endosperm corn, is yellow or white dent corn with specific
endosperm (starch) characteristics. Hard endosperm corn contains high amounts of hard or (horny)
endosperm relative to the amount of floury endosperm. Hard endosperm is a characteristic that is
important to dry milling and alkaline cookers. The goal of the dry mill process is to keep the horny
endosperm in large pieces and to remove the germ and pericarp to yield a low-fat low-fiber product. If
the kernels are significantly soft or broken, there is less opportunity for millers to produce large
grits. Product composition and color, as well as process stability, can also be affected by hardness and
breakage. Other “food” corns directly consumed or widely used in food products include sweet corn and
popcorn. However, these are not dent corns.
What food products is hard endosperm corn used for? What’s in my corn puffs cereal?
Hard endosperm corn is used in alkaline cooking processes for making masa, tortilla chips, tostadas, taco
shells, snack foods, and grits. Flaking grits derived from hard endosperm corn are used for corn flakes,
corn meal and corn flour. Brewer grits are used for the production of beer and corn meal and corn flour
for corn bread, corn muffins, pancakes and waffles. Uses of white food grade corn are similar. White
food corn is typically grown under contract and sold to dry-mill processors or used in alkaline cooking
processes for making masa, tortilla chips, snack foods, and grits. One of the export markets for white
corn is for starch. White food grade corn has limited wet milling use for food grade starch. Paper uses
also exist for white corn.
When is #2 yellow dent corn used for human consumption?
#2 yellow corn is widely used in snack food and cereal production. Past USGC (United States Grain Council
) surveys indicates that hard endosperm corn has greater test weight than #2 yellow corn, slightly lower
broken corn and foreign material, lower amounts of stress cracks and lower percent thins than #2 yellow
corn. Similarly, surveys of white corn quality indicate it was higher in test weight and density than #2
yellow corn and slightly lower in stress cracks, and lower in percent thins. Most corn oil, corn syrup
and high fructose corn syrup directly consumed or widely used in food products are derived from #2 or
other grades of yellow dent corn – not specifically from food grade/hard endosperm hybrids.
Does food grade corn contain transgenic (GMO) traits? Can food grade corns be used in organic crop
production?
Food grade corn hybrids are not consistently associated with non-GMO hybrids.
Several seed companies market several versions of their corn hybrids with and without transgenic traits.
Some non-transgenic hybrids have demonstrated high yield potential in the OSU corn performance tests but
they are not always hybrids with desirable food grade characteristics. There are also transgenic white
corn hybrids available with and without Bt and herbicide resistance traits.
Source
United States Grain Council.