EFECTO DE LA DUREZA DEL GRANO DE MAÍZ (Zea mays L.) SOBRE EL RENDIMIENTO Y CALIDAD DE LA TORTILLA

Abstract

Maize is the most important cereal in the diet of Mexican people. Maize is consumed mainly as tortilla, which can be produced from fresh masa or nixtamalized maize flour. The objectives of the present work were to establish the effect of maize grain hardness on masa and tortilla yields as well as its relationship with tortilla texture and the stability of this tortilla characteristic during the storage. There were used 27 maize samples obtained in the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala that were grouped according to their grain hardness. Physical, chemical and nixtamalization variables were evaluated in the samples. The tortilla quality during the storage was determined in function of texture and moisture. The maize samples with hard endosperm presented higher test weight and lower floatation index and thousand weight values than the maize samples with medium and soft endosperm. Grain hardness affected moisture content of tortilla and in this way tortilla yield, but not the tortilla texture. The favorable tortilla texture characteristics were lost after being storage for 24 h. To obtain an index yield of tortilla/maize ≥1.5, the tortilla moisture has to range from 45 to 46 %. Maize with soft to medium hardness grain let to have tortillas with these moisture requirements.