ABSTRACT
Most of the industrially produced starch is obtained from yellow dent maize. The optimum grain physical properties for wet-milling are soft textured dent kernels with test weights of 67.5 kg/hL and thousand kernel weights greater than 300 g. These kernels contain higher amounts of starch and their starch granules are easier to extract. In addition, the soft endosperm structure kernels hydrate faster during the critical step of steeping, which is considered as the bottleneck of the process. The industry also selects those lots of sound grains with high thousand kernel weight because they favor the ratio of endosperm to germ and pericarp (Johnson and May 2003; May 1987; Serna-Saldivar 2008; Watson 1984). Yellow-colored grains are preferred because they generally cost less and favor the production of highly pigmented gluten demanded by the poultry and feed industries.
