- Organic pop corn– Specification of product – ASK
- Organic hard or regular corn (duro, flint) – Specification of product – ASK
- Organic starch corn (blando) – Specification of product – ASK
- Organic horse tooth corn (dentado) – Specification of product – ASK
- Organic sugar corn – Specification of product – ASK
Corn (lat. Zea mays) is an agricultural plant, which was originally domesticated by Ameridians.
During its growing, the grains are left to dry in the fields and gathered late in the autumn, very often in the spring next year. In our conditions, corn is mostly grown for silage. In this case however, the agriculturists gather from the field unripe green spikes. With the corn grown for grains, the content of endosperm is a very important feature. Based on this characteristic, we distinguish 5 different types of corn:
- Pop corn – it has small grains with soft starch core and a very hard cover. The basis of the popcorn existence, as we all know it, is a state, when by heating the corn, the water in the core changes into steam, which literary rips the hard cover apart. This type of corn represents about 1 % of the grown amount.
- Hard or regular corn (duro, flint) – similar to pop corn, but its grain size is considerably bigger. This corn is mostly grown in mountain and colder areas. It is more tolerant to less ideal storing conditions. It represents about 14 % of the grown amount.
- Starch corn (blando) – so called corn used for flour. It has a soft starch core and is very easy to mill. For human needs it is the most used type of corn. It represents about 12 % of the grown amount.
- Horse tooth corn (dentado) – the core is made of softer starch core only partially covered by harder skin, which creates characteristic bulge during drying. It is the most grown type of corn and represents about 73 % of the world production. It is mostly used for feeding animals. In the industries, it is used for example to make starch.
- Sugar corn – the core of this corn contains mostly dissolvable sugars that have low levels of starch.
It is very beneficial to include corn in our diet. There are at least 3 reasons for this:
- It is a rich source of antioxidants and in contrast to other commodities, by cooking the corn the level of antioxidants is getting higher
- It is a rich source of vitamins B1 and B3
- It is a rich source of iron, which helps to fight against anemia…