Cereal Chem. 70:286-290   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Development of Two Instrumental Methods for Corn Masa Texture Evaluation.

B. Ramirez- Wong, V. E. Sweat, P. I. Torres, and L. W. Rooney. Copyright 1993 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

To evaluate corn masa texture, two instrumental methods were developed. The mechanical stickiness device (MSD) method used two rectangular bars (with movable upper bar) fastened at one end in a parallel arrangement with a 12-mm gap between them. A block of masa was formed between the bars and partially split with a special cutter, then one end of the movable bar was raised until the masa detached from it. The degree of adhesion of masa to the upper bar gave an adhesiveness index. The Instron compression-tension texture (ICTT) method compressed a masa disk between two flat plates to a thickness of 2 mm, then put the same sample under tension. The textural characteristics evaluated were: adhesiveness, hardness, and the compression-tension factor (CTF). Both methods tested masa made from nixtamal cooked for 55 min and conditioned at three moisture levels (56.8, 58.8, and 60.4%). Results were quite reproducible as evaluated by the coefficient of variation (range: 3.7-35.2%). Optimum masa had an MSD adhesiveness of 10-35%, an ICTT adhesiveness between 8.7 X 10(4) and 1 X 10(5) Pa, and a CTF of 2.4-2.7. Masa moisture content increased adhesiveness and decreased hardness and CTF. The MSD adhesiveness had a high correlation with ICTT hardness (r = -0.90).