Hominy, essentially hulled corn with the bran and germ removed, is eaten as a cereal or a vegetable. Popular in southern US the ingredient is less expansive in Europe.
Scientists at the New Zealand-based research company Crop & Food Research, claim a "unique combination of hominy and other food ingredients" has unlocked a novel ingredient that food makers can use "to promote the sustained energy release qualities of products".
Notably foods positioned with a lower glycaemic response.
The growing popularity of the Glycaemic Index diet (GI), a regime that ranks foods based on their effect on blood glucose levels, is encouraging food makers to launch new food brands onto the shelves that incorporate low-GI ingredients in their recipes.
Much of the popularity is linked to the phenomenon that high blood sugar is known to be the defining feature of diabetes.
"We found a way to combine the hominy with other food ingredients which enabled us to process ingredients in a conventional food extruder to produce a product like a rice bubble," says Crop & Food Research maize scientist Allan Hardacre.
The ability to add flavours and other ingredients to the hominy combination is ideal for extrusion and provides excellent potential for many tasty and healthy food products, he adds.
Project partners Corson Grain of Gisborne claim they are talking with a "large cereal and snack food producer" interested in manufacturing new products in New Zealand and Australia.
We're also interested in talking with brewers about feeding this novel ingredient to yeast during fermentation, adds Corson Grain's general manager, Shane Lamont.
Owned by the Crown Research Institute group, Crop & Food Research last week reported an 18 per cent rise in operating revenues of A$47 million for the year ended 30 June 2005.
The firm said a significant chunk of its A$3 million capital injection from the Crown, was poured into the development of start-up entities Gracelinc to commercialise barley beta-glucans, and TRINZ to commercialise truffles