Cereal Chem 55:489 - 494.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Corn Flour: Reduction of Particle Size.

S. M. Badi, R. C. Hoseney, and W. D. Eustace. Copyright 1978 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The particle size of corn flour (-50W) could be reduced by repeated roller milling or pin milling. Both methods, however, increased starch damage. Hydrating corn flour with water followed by air drying also reduced particle size. Lyophilizing similar samples instead of air drying them resulted in materially finer particle size, indicating that air drying may induce agglomeration. Mercaptoethanol, an effective solvent for certain corn proteins, effectively reduced particle size of flour samples dried by either lyophilization or solvent drying (ethyl alcohol). Using ethanol to dry the sample resulted in about one-third of the corn protein being solubilized. Samples dried by lyophilization gave a definite protein shift during air classification. Combining treatment with mercaptoethanol and mild wet grinding produced a sample with 83% of the particles finer than 50 microns. Repeated treatments with sodium bisulfite gave a sample in which 96.5% of the particles were finer than 50 microns.