ABSTRACT
Maize (Zea mays) is rated either second or third in terms of world cereal production, depending on crop year statistics. With maize production at 577 million metric tons (MT) in 1996, it is very close to that of wheat (585 million MT) and rice (562 million MT) (1). Nearly one half of the world production of maize is from North America (the United States, Mexico, Canada). China is the next largest producer at about 20% of the world’s crop. Maize is the largest animal feed grain in the world, considering that wheat and rice are primarily food grains. However, maize is also a major food grain in many areas of Latin America and Africa and has a large food and industrial market in the United States. Currently, approximately 65% of the U.S. maize crop is used for animal feed; about 25% is exported, and the remaining 10% is further processed into food ingredients, nonfood coatings and adhesives, and ethanol (2). Among the many products derived from maize, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and fuel alcohol predominated in 1998; each of these consumed approximately 14 million MT of corn. Starch (native and modified) and nonHFCS starch hydrolysates (glucose, oligoglucans, maltodextrins) consumed about 5.8 to 6.3 million MT each; beverage alcohol used about 3.2 million MT, and cereals and other dry milled products used about 3.6 million MT (2). In addition to these products, there are significant markets for by-prod-ucts of the dry-and wet-milling processes, which include maize oil and gluten feed and meal.
