The below content replicates the content of the physical exhibit at CSU Spur. It can be used for reference, language translation, and additional accessibility.
Food processing
What is it?
After a crop is harvested, it might need to go through some steps to make it into food that’s ready to eat. These steps are called processing. Processing such as canning, smoking, and drying helps food last longer and creates new products for us to eat and drink. Processes like grinding and cooking add flavor or make foods easier to eat.
For generations, people have ground corn using a mano y metate (mortar and pestle). They still do today.
Nixtamalization
Processing for better nutrition
Many food processes are very old. For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples cooked corn in water with limestone or ash. This process is called nixtamalization (NEESH-ta-mal-i-za-shun). Then and now, nixtamalization makes corn easier to eat and more nutritious.
This wild Mexican grass called teosinte is the ancestor of corn. Early farmers first domesticated it 9,000 years ago!
Made from corn
Surprise! Everything here was made with corn.
Corn is much more than food. We make lots of products from different parts of corn. We get oil from the germ of the corn, the oil-rich part of the kernel. Corn starches give us corn syrup, ethanol, and of course, corn starch.
Field corn
- Corn products come from field corn. It’s also called “dent” corn. See the dented kernels?
Corn oil
Corn starch
Corn syrup
Ethanol
- These four corn products are ingredients in hundreds of other products.
Fireworks
- Corn starch holds the chemicals inside fireworks together until they burst in the air!
Medical products
- Corn syrup makes cough medicine sweet. Many pills and capsules contain corn starch.
Personal care products
- Many hair and body products contain ingredients made from corn oil, starch, or sugar.
Toys and fun
- Corn starch helps crayons and plastic toys pop out of the molds they are created with.
Packaging and containers
- These biodegradable containers are corn plastic. The packing peanuts are made from corn starch.
Processing corn
Made from corn
Tap the ear of corn to begin.
Select a product to learn how it is made from corn.
Processing corn into car fuel
Ethyl alcohol, or “ethanol”, is the same alcohol found in beer and wine. Adding ethanol to gasoline isn’t new! Henry Ford designed the first Model T car to run on a mix of gas and ethanol.
Step 1: Grind corn into mash.
- The mill operator grinds corn kernels and mixes them with water. They cook the corn mash and add enzymes. The enzymes break the corn starches into sugars.
Step 2: Ferment with yeast.
- Yeast feeds on the corn sugars, converting it into ethanol and carbon dioxide. After fermenting for 60 hours, nearly all the sugars have become ethanol.
Step 3: Distill the alcohol.
- Distilling separates the alcohol from the fermented corn mash. Alcohol is pulled out as a vapor, then cooled into a liquid.
Step 4: Mix with gasoline
- When the ethanol is very pure, a fuel blending technician combines it with gasoline. Some vehicles can run on 85% ethanol fuel.
Processing corn into poster paint
The washable paint you use in school contains corn starch. In cooking, corn starch helps thicken sauces and bind ingredients together. Corn starch does the same job in paint. It’s a thickener and binder.
Step 1: Soak and grind the corn.
- Soaking causes corn kernels to begin breaking down. Grinding breaks the kernels into a mash of corn components: germ, fiber, gluten, and starch.
Step 2: Separate and dry the starch.
- The starch is dried in spinners and drying machines. A quality assurance inspector makes sure the starch meets the company’s quality rules.
Step 3: Mix with other ingredients.
- Making paint is like following a cooking recipe. The paint factory mixes the corn starch with other starches, water, glue, and color pigments.
Step 4: Fill and label bottles.
- Paint bottles get filled and labeled by machines. The packaging line operator and maintenance technician keep the bottling machines running.
Processing corn into tortilla chips
Indigenous Peoples in the Americas have made corn tortillas for thousands of years. But tortilla chips were invented in a Los Angeles tortilla factory. In the 1940s, Rebecca Webb Carranza cut and fried misshapen tortillas so they wouldn’t go to waste.
Step 1: Soak and cook corn.
- The food prep operator soaks and cooks the corn in hot water and limestone powder. This process is called nixtamalization (NEESH-ta-mal-i-za-shun).
Step 2: Grind into dough.
- The cooked corn gets ground into a mash. The mash goes into an extruder machine that kneads it into dough called masa.
Step 3: Roll out and cut.
- Rollers press the dough into thin sheets. Rolling cutters cut the sheets into triangles. Leftover dough trimmings go back through the rollers.
Step 4: Fry or bake.
- Chips can be baked or deep-fried. The cooked chips get a coating of salt or flavorings. Sensory analysts run taste tests with different groups of people to make sure the chips taste great.
Processing corn into cattle feed
Dr. Kiichiro “Johnny” Matsushima was an animal nutritionist at CSU. He invented a process called steam-flaking. Steam-flaking makes corn kernels more nutritious for cattle. A cow eating steam-flaked corn needs 10% less feed.
Step 1: Harvest the corn.
- The farmer harvests the corn with a combine. The combine cuts the corn stalks. Then it separates the corn kernels from the stalks and cobs. You can try harvesting corn at the Food Production exhibit.
Step 2: Steam-flake the corn.
- The steam-flaking machine cooks the corn. Then a mill rolls the corn into thin flakes. Steam-flaking makes corn easier for cattle to digest.
Step 3: Mix into balanced rations.
- An animal nutritionist decides what to mix with the corn. Like us, cattle need a balanced diet of starch, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Step 4: Feed to cattle.
- Some ranchers give steam-flaked corn to beef cattle to help them grow strong, while dairy farmers use it to help their cows make more milk using less food.
Processing corn into a t-shirt
The starch and sugars in corn can be converted into many different things – including plastic. Corn plastic can be molded into forks, spoons, and cups. It can also be made into clothing!
Step 1: Make corn plastic.
- Special bacteria change corn sugars into a plastic called PLA (polylactic acid). Microbiologists find the best bacteria for the task.
Step 2: Stretch into threads.
- Melted PLA goes into a spinneret machine. The spinneret acts like a pasta machine. It pushes the liquid PLA into thin threads.
Step 3: Knit the fabric.
- The PLA threads get twisted into yarn. Yarn is made into fabric by weaving or knitting. T-shirt fabric is a knit fabric.
Step 4: Cut and sew the t-shirt.
- The fabric is cut into shapes, following a sewing pattern. Sewing machine operators, also called stitchers, sew the fabric pieces together.
Processing corn into shampoo
Shampoos often contain several corn ingredients. Citric acid, sorbitol, and xanthan gum made from corn help protect and moisturize your hair and keep the shampoo ingredients together. Hydrolyzed corn protein hydrates and strengthens hair.
Step 1: Make sorbitol.
- A bioprocessing technician uses enzymes to break corn starch molecules into glucose sugar. A second chemical process converts glucose into sorbitol.
Step 2: Make xanthan gum.
- Xanthan gum is a natural thickener made by bacteria called Xanthomonas campestris. The bacteria eat corn sugar and produce the gummy ingredient.
Step 3: Mix with other ingredients.
- A cosmetic chemist creates a shampoo recipe. Each ingredient does a job. Citric acid sets the right pH level to protect hair. Sorbitol helps moisturize hair.
Step 4: Fill and label bottles.
- Finally, the shampoo goes into bottles and gets labeled. A packaging designer makes sure the bottles appeal to customers.
