Uses for Maize

Human food

Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa’s most important staple food crop.

Maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, to mush in the U.S. (called grits in the South) or the food called mealie pap in South Africa and sadza, nshima and ugali in other parts of Africa.

Maize meal is also used as a replacement for wheat flour, to make cornbread and other baked products. Masa (cornmeal treated with lime water) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Mexican food.

Popcorn consists of kernels of certain varieties that explode when heated, forming fluffy pieces that are eaten as a snack. Roasted dried maize cobs with semi-hardened kernels, coated with a seasoning mixture of fried chopped spring onions with salt added to the oil, is a popular snack food in Vietnam.

Cancha, which are roasted maize chulpe kernels, are a very popular snack food in Peru, and also appears in traditional Peruvian ceviche. An unleavened bread called Makki di roti is a popular bread eaten in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.

Chicha and “chicha morada” (purple chicha) are drinks typically made from particular types of maize. The first one is fermented and alcoholic, the second is a soft drink commonly drunk in Peru.

Corn flakes are a common breakfast cereal in North America and the United Kingdom, and found in many other countries all over the world.

Maize can also be prepared as hominy, in which the kernels are soaked with lye in a process called nixtamalization; or grits, which are coarsely ground hominy. These are commonly eaten in the Southeastern United States, foods handed down from Native Americans, who called the dish sagamite.

The Brazilian dessert canjica is made by boiling maize kernels in sweetened milk. Maize can also be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft. Unripe maize must usually be cooked to become palatable; this may be done by simply boiling or roasting the whole ears and eating the kernels right off the cob.

Sweetcorn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is usually consumed in the unripe state. Such corn on the cob is a common dish in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, some parts of South America, and the Balkans, but virtually unheard of in some European countries. Corn on the cob was hawked on the streets of early 19th-century New York City by poor, barefoot “Hot Corn Girls”, who were thus the precursors of hot-dog carts, churro wagons, and fruit stands seen on the streets of big cities today.

The cooked unripe kernels may also be shaved off the cob and served as a vegetable in side dishes, salads, garnishes, etc. Alternatively, the raw unripe kernels may also be grated off the cobs and processed into a variety of cooked dishes, such as maize purée, tamales, pamonhas, curau, cakes, ice creams, etc.

Maize is a major source of starch. Cornstarch (maize flour) is a major ingredient in home cooking and in many industrialized food products. Maize is also a major source of cooking oil (corn oil) and of maize gluten. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of bourbon whiskey. Maize is sometimes used as the starch source for beer.

Within the United States, the usage of maize for human consumption constitutes about 1/40th of the amount of grown in the country. In the United States and Canada maize is mostly grown to feed for livestock, as forage, silage (made by fermentation of chopped green cornstalks), or grain. Maize meal is also a significant ingredient of some commercial animal food products, such as dog food.

Maize is also used as a fish bait, called “dough balls”. It is particularly popular in Europe for coarse fishing.

Chemicals and medicines

Starch from maize can also be made into plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical products.

Stigmas from female maize flowers, known popularly as corn silk, are sold as herbal supplements.

The corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery byproduct of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the biochemical industry and research as a culture medium to grow many kinds of microorganisms.

Biofuel

“Feed maize” is being used increasingly for heating. Sspecialized corn stoves (similar to wood stoves) are available and use either feed maize or wood pellets to generate heat. Maize cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home-heating furnaces have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper that feeds the uniformly sized maize kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire.

Ethanol is mixed with gasoline in order to decrease the amount of pollutants emitted when used to fuel motor vehicles. High fuel prices in mid 2007 led to higher demand for ethanol, which in turn lead to higher prices paid to farmers for maize. This led to the 2007 harvest being one of the most profitable maize crops in modern history for farmers.

The price of food is affected to a certain degree by the use of maize for biofuel production. The cost of transportation, production, and marketing are a large portion (80%) of the price of food in the United States. Higher energy costs affect these costs, especially transportation. The increase in food prices the consumer has been seeing is mainly due to the higher energy cost. The effect of biofuel production on other food crop prices is indirect. Use of maize for biofuel production increases the demand, and therefore price of maize. This in turn results in farm acreage being diverted from other food crops to maize production. This reduces the supply of the other food crops and increases their prices.

Maize is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for biogas plants. Here the maize is harvested, shredded then placed in silage clamps from which it is fed into the biogas plants. This process makes use of the whole plant rather than simply utilizing the cob as in the production of fuel ethanol.

A biomass gasification power plant in Strem near Güssing, Burgenland, Austria began in 2005. Research is being done to make diesel out of the biogas by the Fischer Tropsch method.

Increasingly ethanol is being used at low concentrations (10% or less) as an additive in gasoline (gasohol) for motor fuels, to increase the octane rating, lower pollutants, and reduce petroleum use (what is nowadays also known as “biofuels”)

Ornamental and other uses

Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and colored leaf forms as well as those with colorful ears are used. Size-superlative types, having reached 34 ft (10 m) tall, cobs 2 ft (61 cm) long, or 1 in (2.5 cm) kernels, have been popular for at least a century.Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869.

An unusual use for maize is to create a corn maze (or maize maze) as a tourist attraction. The idea of a maize maze was introduced by Adrian Fisher, one of the most prolific designers of modern mazes, with The American Maze Company who created a maze in Pennsylvania in 1993. Traditional mazes are most commonly grown using yew hedges, but these take several years to mature. The rapid growth of a field of maize allows a maze to be laid out using GPS at the start of a growing season and for the maize to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor’s line of sight by the start of the summer. In Canada and the U.S., these are popular in many farming communities.

Maize kernels can be used in place of sand in a sandboxlike enclosure for children’s play.

Additionally feed corn is sometimes used by hunters to bait animals such as deer or wild hogs.

Fodder

Maize makes a greater quantity of epigeous mass than other cereal plants, so can be used for fodder. Digestibility and palatability are higher when ensiled and fermented, rather than dried.

As a commodity

Maize as a commodity is bought and sold by investors and price speculators as a tradable commodity. It is referred to as a corn futures contract. Corn futures contracts are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) under ticker symbol C. They are delivered every year in March, May, July, September, and December.

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