Production process of nixtamalized maize flour, nixtamalizing the maize fractions separately without producing nejayote

Process of nixtamalized maize flour production by nixtamalizing maize fractions separately without producing nejayote, comprising the following steps:

• a) cleaning maize grains by passing the maize grains between magnets, winnowing, vacuuming, destoning, and selecting a color to obtain clean maize grains;
• b) hydrating the clean maize grains by spraying water over the clean maize grains and continuously mixing to obtain hydrated maize grains;
• c) polishing and resting the hydrated maize grains to obtain polished and rested maize grains and separating the polished and rested maize grains into two parts, a first part being a fiber fraction composed of fibers, pericarp, parts of germ, and dark flour, and a second part being an endosperm fraction composed of polished grains and endosperms:
• d) drying the fiber fraction with a stream of hot air at a temperature range of 90° C. to 120° C. to obtain a dry fiber fraction;
• e) sifting the dry fiber fraction to separate the pericarp and the parts of germ from the dark flour with a first sieve with an opening range of 0.71 mm to 0.85 mm to obtain sifted dark flour that has passed through the first sieve and a retained fraction containing the pericarp and the parts of germ that is left in the first sieve;
• f) milling the retained fraction in a hammer mill and sifting through a second sieve so that 95% by weight of the pericarp and the parts of germ contained in the retained fraction pass through the second sieve with a second sieve opening of 0.25 mm to obtain milled fibers;
• g) spraying water over the endosperm fraction, continuously mixing, and then resting for a maximum time of one hour obtain a hydrated endosperm fraction;
• h) separating any of the parts of germ and the pericarp remaining in the hydrated endosperm fraction using a degerminator to obtain an endosperm mixture comprising a mix of flour, the parts of germ, and differently sized endosperms;
• i) passing the endosperm mixture through banks of a double grain roller mill, and sifting into two parts wherein a first comprises endosperms of uniform size and a second is a fine flour fraction comprising a flour mixture, endosperms of non-uniform size and germ;
• j) mixing the fine flour fraction, the milled fibers and the sifted dark flour to obtain a dry mixture, and hydrating the dry mixture by spraying an aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide with 0.1% to 0.15% by weight of the dry mixture at a temperature of 80° C. to 85° C., maintaining at a temperate range of 40° C. to 45° C. and mixing continuously until reaching a humidity between 25% and 32%, and resting from one to two hours at a temperature between 40° C. and 45° C. to obtain mixed nixtamalized flour;
• k) hydrating the endosperms of uniform size in a solution of calcium hydroxide of 0.1% to 0.15% by weight in relation to the endosperms of uniform size by spraying at a temperature range of 80° C. to 85° C., and resting for a period of two to four hours at a temperature of 40° C. to 45° C. to obtain nixtamalized endosperm of uniform size;
• l. Subjecting the nixtamalized endosperm of uniform size to a double screw extruder to between 80 to 90% of a capacity of the double screw extruder, at an input temperature of 40° C. to 50° C. and an output temperature of 60° C. to 70° C., cutting and cooling to temperatures lower than 60° C. to obtain extruded fractions;
• m) combining the extruded fractions in a proportion of 65% to 75% by weight with the mixed nixtamalized flour in a proportion of 35% to 25% by weight to obtain a mix;
• n) milling the mix in a micro pulverizer mill to obtain a milled mix, dehydrating the milled mix with a flux of warm air from a pipe with an initial reduced diameter section and a subsequent increased diameter section wherein when the milled mix meets the subsequent increased diameter section, the air expands causing instant drying of the milled mix to obtain a milled dehydrated mixture;
• o) cooling the milled dehydrated mixture until the milled dehydrated mixture reaches a temperature between 30° C. and 35° C. to obtain a milled, dehydrated, and cooled mixture;
• p) sifting the milled, dehydrated, and cooled mixture to yield a fine fraction comprising nixtamalized maize flour and a coarse fraction;
• q) re-milling the coarse fraction in a micro pulverizer mill and sifting to separate flour that meets granulometric properties to obtain a sieved flour;
• and
• r) sending the sieved flour and the nixtamalized maize flour to be stored in a hopper or/and packaged in different presentations.