Commercial opportunities and challenges for protein products from corn

To improve economics, dry-grind corn ethanol plants are transitioning to fractionation processes to produce higher value co-products from non-fermentable fractions. Dry-milled corn germ is one non-fermentable fraction that is a potential source of higher value food protein. However, low oil and protein purity currently restrict the use and value of dry-milled germ. Germ wet milling is a novel method developed to improve germ purity (protein, oil) by water soaking followed by wet processing of dry-milled germ. In this study, we determined the effect of soaking conditions (pH, temperature, time) on germ composition to identify the best conditions for producing germ (HPHPG) with high protein and high protein dispersibility index (PDI). The soaking and subsequent processing of dry-milled germ increased protein content from 15 to 21%, reduced starch from 33 to 9%, and increased oil content from 16 to 39%.

Commercial opportunities and challenges for protein products from corn Conference Paper