The growing diversity of the global population in the early 1900’s has seen many people exposed to different foods and flavours and Mexican based foods are one such food that has seen amazing popularity. Corn is the primary grain farmed and produced in the world and has been used for centuries in Central and South America to produce products such as tortillas, tacos, and corn chips.
Since the 1930’s, corn based products have become part of the mainstream snack food industry, with fried tortillas evolving into mass produced corn chips, which are now one of the world’s most popular snack foods.
Heat and Control has been involved with producing corn based snack foods since the 1950’s and is a end to end solution for specialised processing, seasoning, inspection, conveying, weighing and packaging for corn products.
Commercial Production of Corn Chips Begins
Tortilla chips and tostadas, which are a type of tortilla chip, were sold in the US in the early 1900’s in restaurants in Texas near the Mexican border. I.J Filler was a salesman travelling along the Mexican border who was eating tostadas in a small Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, when he conceived the idea of manufacturing a rectangular shaped corn chip.
With the help of his father who designed a rudimentary grinder and rolling machine to grind and form masa (corn meal), Filler was granted a Trademark for corn chips in 1932.
A man named Elmer Doolin was also in Texas at this time and bought the rights to a ribbon shaped corn chips recipe from a Mexican man, as well as his retail outlets and production equipment. He started producing and selling this product as ‘Fritos’, with sales averaging $8.00 to $10.00 a day, yielding a $2.00 profit. By the mid 1930’s the key elements for the development of the snack food market were in place and the catalyst that created a boom industry was the introduction of the corn chip.
Today, corn based snacks foods are a multi-billion dollar global industry. Heat and Control has long provided the equipment and means for snack food producers to keep up with demand of this burgeoning market by providing complete systems for tortilla and corn chips, taco shells, tostadas, corn tortillas, extruded corn snacks and fried corn kernels.
How are corn based snack products made?
The production of corn based snack foods has come a long way since Elmer Doolin started selling corn chips from his garage. Today, there are simple manually operated lines, semi-automatic or fully automated systems available for corn based snack products. Heat and Control will assess the needs of the individual customer and design a tailored production line to suit the production requirements and growth goals.
For processors, cooking corn allows the development and maintenance of a unique, consistent flavour and texture for their corn and tortilla chips, taco shells, tostadas and tortillas. Over the years, Heat and Control has perfected the operation of corn preparation to assure consistent quality of corn products for our customers, giving each product a unique, tasty flavour.
Given the large variety of corn-based products, there are different processes and equipment for each line of snack foods. Corn preparation is quite complex. There are many variations in finished corn products and the shape has developed to suit the purpose. Corn chips for dipping are produced with a curve to make it easier to pick up dip, and chips that are used for Nachos are larger to accommodate salsa, guacamole and melted cheese.
The process for manufacturing corn and tortilla chips is similar, but simmering and soaking times vary considerably. Another difference is that tortilla chips are baked in the oven and then fried, while corn chips only go through the frying process.
Preparation Stage of Corn Cooking
The corn used should be whole grain, free of foreign material and containing a minimum of cracked kernels. Most manufacturers use yellow corn in favour of blended. However, some processors use white or blue corn varieties to differentiate their finished product. It is essential that clean, uniformly sized and impurity free corn is used in the mixture.
The cleaner the corn is before cooking, the better the masa is later. Broken pieces of corn will absorb larger quantities of water and will cause wet, sticky masa, making it difficult to cook and resulting in a poor product.
The first step is to produce a dough, or masa. When cooking the corn, it is important to hydrate the corn kernels and loosen the husks and to increase the moisture content of the corn by adding water. Lime must also be added to the corn to improve the flavour, as well as weakening and removing the outer layer of the corn pericarp so the chip is crispier. The addition of lime also controls the microbial activity, improving shelf life.
Heat and Control has a wide range of equipment to produce Masa and ensure consistent quality. Our processing systems including Masa Production Systems and Corn Washers that enable food manufacturers to duplicate the masa recipe every time. Extruders and Sheeters accurately form and transfer masa without altering the texture and flavour of the product.
Corn Ovens and Frying
When toasting tortilla chips, a belt moves chips through the oven and exposes both sides of the chip to oven burners. The oven burners crust both sides of the chip and toast the bottom side of the chip using burners located under the top belt. This seals the chip and prevents the chips sticking to the belt. The quantity of toast marks varies depending on what the market desires.
In the frying process, moisture is removed from the chip and replaced with oil to develop the texture, flavour, and appearance of the chip. Heat and Control cooking systems, such as fryers and ovens, can evenly distribute heat and give precise control of cook time and temperature. We have a range of Tortilla Toaster ovens for uniform toasting of tortilla and taco shell production.
Our world class frying systems can provide precise control of oil flow, temperature and cook time for corn chips, tortilla chips and tostadas. We also have a specialised range of frying systems available for taco shells and tostadas.
Seasoning and Conveying
Conveying corn-based snack foods is a delicate process as the product can break and all important seasoning can fall off with lower quality conveyor belts. Heat and Control conveyor systems can reduce product breakage by up to 60% using FastBack® Horizontal motion. The gentle slow-forward, fast-back motion prevents product damage and seasoning coating loss. Seasoning applicators, such as our FastBack Revolution Seasoning Systems, uniformly apply seasonings with less breakage and waste.
An ever-changing snacks industry
Corn snack foods continue to evolve as consumers are exposed to new products and flavours. For 70 years Heat and Control have assisted food manufacturers respond to market changes by continuously improving equipment and providing customers with the best equipment and technology to increase production levels.
Do you need an expert to design the right solution for your corn products?
Our complete Corn Product Systems are designed by engineers with years of experience in snack food products. Heat and Control are the leading single source supplier of equipment needed to process, season, weigh, inspect and package the highest quality corn chips, tortilla chips, and other corn snacks. Visit www.heatandcontrol.com to learn more or get in touch via info@heatandcontrol.com
