Corn Use
About
We often think of corn as a simple resource limited to uses in agricultural and commercial food industries. However, corn can actually be processed to utilize any or all of its four major components -- starch, protein, oil, and fiber -- in thousands of additional applications, products, and alternative uses.
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It is often quite surprising to learn how often we come in contact with products and services which rely on corn components! For example...
Modern Tires are made with molds dusted with corn starch to prevent undesirable bonding, and some tires actually contain micro-droplets of corn starch to lower overall weight and decrease unnecessary resistance.
Wallpaper Paste contains corn starch, slowing drying time enough to allow for placement and re-positioning.
Frozen Pizzas contain modified corn starch as an important barrier between layers of crust and sauce, which would otherwise exchange moisture and result in a soggy pie when cooked!
Plastics and Textiles are often produced with Corn-based polylactic acid (PLA), a renewable and biodegradable alternative to traditional oil-based ingredients. PLA can be made into fibers for woven and non-woven fabrics, and be blended with cotton, wool, and silk to produce a variety of products: carpet, clothing, film wrap, rope, disposable cups, and more.
Industrial chemicals, solvents, and organic acids can be made from a renewable resource such as corn, rather than from non-renewable raw materials. Ongoing research today is aimed at solving the challenge of making corn-based chemicals economically competitive. By the end of this century, the U.S. National Research Council predicts that more than 90% of U.S. organic chemicals will be made from renewable resources.
These are just a few examples of corn use that go beyond the commonly known. The list of uses for corn and corn byproducts is enormous and growing. Today, the typical grocery store offers almost 4,000 products with corn ingredients on the label, a variety of industries use corn starches and oils as lubricants, adhesives and dyes, the health community is using corn components to help with special medical processes such as pennicilin production, and important financial and environmental problems caused by conventional fuel sources are being improved by the use of corn-based fuel alcohol (ethanol).