Corn flakes manufacturing process: extrusion takes over from the traditional method

Although there are many different varieties of corn, dent corn, also known as field corn, is the most widely used corn when making cornflakes. The traditional method involves mixing the coarse flaking-grade corn grits with the other ingredients, cooking and drying them to about 21% of moisture, tempering, and then rolling them into flakes before toasting (final moisture range 1-3%).

Nowadays, corn flakes are made by extrusion cooking, however. The extrusion process begins by cleaning and milling dent corn into cornmeal often using a twin screw extruder. The cornmeal is then transferred onto a feeding conveyor that loads it into a sifter and then into an extruder. Then, extrusion takes place: a process that combines mixing, cooking, kneading and forming.

The ingredients are fed into the extruder barrel and subjected to heating, compression and mixing. The raw material comes out of the extruder in form of strands that are then cut to form the pellets. After drying, pellets are flaked using a flaking roller and toasted

Production process of corn flakes: flaking

Loss of phenolic acids when making corn flakes – How to avoid it?

Grains such as corn, whole wheat and oats contain phenolic acids. Phenolic acids are anti-inflammatory and work as antioxidants, preventing cellular damage. Phenolic acids in grains such as corn are concentrated mostly in the bran; sadly the bran is either partially or wholly removed during corn processing, which significantly decreases the amount of phenolic acids in corn flakes. The largest loss of phenolic content happens during three stages dry milling- whole kernel, flaking grit and toasted cornflake.