 | Beverages
Corn has become America's favorite sweetener, capturing more than
54% of the sweetener market. Every major non-diet soft drink on the market uses high
fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. Many powdered drinks, like lemonade and fruit drinks,
use crystalline fructose made from corn. Maltodextrins, derived from the grain milling
process, are sprayed on instant tea and coffee to keep the granules free
flowing. This solution is also used in instant soup mixes or other packages
where the contents must be be kept free flowing.
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| Breads and cakes
Wheat flour is the basis for most bread and cake recipes. Cake mixes use a
pre-gelatinized corn starch that will form a paste in cold or
warm water. In baked goods that use yeast for rising, dextrose is used as a
yeast nutrient.
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| Candies, cookies and chocolates
Corn syrup is used in hard candies to give them the desired chewiness without excessive sweetness. Candies that are coated
use corn starch for the coating. Corn starch, wheat flour or dextrose may be found in cookies.
Oat flour protects the freshness of many chocolates.
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| Cereals
As cereals and porridges are derived from roasted grains, they are
high in protein and are particularly good sources of thiamine, or vitamin B1.
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Condiments
From mayonnaise to catsup and salad dressing, corn
oil and sweeteners add flavor to all our meals.
Salad dressings and condiments pour at
manageable rates because of corn syrups' effect on viscosity.
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| Hot dogs and lunchmeat
Corn
syrups provide the suspension to keep other ingredients evenly mixed.
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| Ice cream
Oat flour also serves as a fat stabilizer in ice
cream and other dairy products. Corn syrups can depress freezing to prevent
crystal formation in ice cream and other frozen desserts.
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| Oils and margarines
Vegetable oils are widely used for cooking oil and margarine, because
of their excellent frying quality and resistance to
smoking or discoloration. They also have a pleasant taste, resist developing off-flavors and offer
high levels of polyunsaturated, instead of saturated fats.
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| Peanut
butter and jelly
Oat flour contains antioxidants that retard rancidity in
fat-containing foods; it is an ingredient of peanut butter. In jams, jellies, preserves and icing mixes
dextrose from corn is used to temper the intense sweetness of sucrose and offers another
advantage - it maintains moisture so products don't go stale.
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| Snack foods
Corn chips, snack crackers and popcorn are made from corn, wheat or
oats. The high starch content is important in giving a high puff in preparation of pressed
snack products in which a delicate flavor is desired.
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