Corn starch, corn syrup, dextrose and corn oil are produced during the wet milling of maize.
More uses of maize includes starch and glucose manufacturing industries consume about 650 000 tons of the 10 million to 12 million tons of the maize produced in South Africa each year, according to the Prospectus on the South African Maize Industry.
Corn starch is used in baking powder, pudding, candies, gravies and premixes to help thicken products. It may be used as an anti-caking agent, for example, with cheese and salt or as adhesive and sizing agents (a substance used to protect paper against water) in paper products and in textile manufacturing.
High-fructose corn syrup is primarily used as a sweetener in bread, cereals, canned fruit, instant meals, yoghurts, soft drinks, sauces and salad dressings, such as mayonnaise and tomato sauce.
While “high-fructose” makes it sound unhealthy, the syrup actually only contains 42% fructose in comparison with the 50% of sugar and 49% of honey. High-fructose corn syrup derived its name from the fact that standard corn syrup doesn’t contain any fructose as it is a hundred percent glucose.
Claims that high-fructose corn syrup led to increases in obesity in the United States and that it is metabolised differently from high fructose corn syrup have been unfounded. Too much, as with any other food stuff no matter how healthy, may nevertheless lead to health problems.
Dextrose is used as a food sweetener or preservative. Being a simple sugar, dextrose is also used in medicines to treat low blood sugar and dehydration.
Corn oil is a refined vegetable oil that is used for cooking and especially deep frying. It may also be used as an ingredient in some margarines and sauces.
Biofuel Production
In 2017, the South African government drafted its first Biofuels Industrial Strategy to lower the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. Maize, in spite of being one of the predominant feedstocks used for bio-ethanol production, was dropped from the list of crops that can be used for production due to food security concerns.
The exclusion took stakeholders by surprise, as they saw ethanol production as an opportunity to create an alternative market which would boost the industry and support rural development. Besides this, one third of the weight and hundred percent of the nutritional content of maize entering a bio-refinery are returned to the feed market as distillers grains, which can be used to replace corn in the diets of cattle, swine and poultry.
The United States, which primarily uses maize as feedstock, is currently the biggest ethanol producer in the world. In 2019, the States accounted for 60.1 billion litres, which is expected to increase to 62 billion litres by 2024. Brazil, which is the second biggest producer, together with the United States accounted for 84% of the global ethanol production in 2017.
Most of the big biofuel producing countries use incentives to stimulate biofuel production, for example, through compulsory fuel blending and also heavily invest in infrastructure to support the development of the industry.