Continuous production of cereal flour and whole-cereal flour for grain-based foods, using a low-moisture precooking

Abstract

A bioprocess and apparatus for the continuous production of novel masa and whole-corn flours as cereal-base and functional-food ingredients. The bioprocess includes providing a fine grind fraction of corn kernel; combining the fine grind fraction of corn kernel with at least one endoamylase to produce an enzyme-added fine grind; moist-heat precooking the enzyme-added fine grind to obtain a pre-cooked enzyme-added fine grind; low-moisture conditioning the precooked enzyme-added fine grind to partially hydrolyze starchy endosperm and swell starch and aleurone-bran granules to produce enzymatically conditioned corn kernel particles; and_milling the conditioned corn kernel particles to obtain flour comprising a fine grind portion of the conditioned corn kernel particle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.