Well, there is such a thing as
corn tortillas, which many of the Mexicans I know do indeed use.
A couple other things which use corn and most of which aren't from sweet corn (it doesn't grind up very well):
Products that use Corn
Adhesives (glues, pastes, mucilages, gums, etc.)
Aluminum
Antibiotics (penicillin)
Asbestos insulation
Aspirin
Automobiles (everything on wheels)
xxx- cylinder heads
xxx- ethanol - fuel & windshield washer fluid
xxx- spark plugs
xxx- synthetic rubber finishes
xxx- tires
Baby food
Batteries, dry cell
Beer
Breakfast cereals
Candies
Canned vegetables
Carbonated beverages
Cheese spreads
Chewing gum
Chocolate products
Coatings on wood, paper & metal
Colour carrier in paper & textile, printing
Corn chips
Corn meal
Cosmetics
C.M.A. (calcium magnesium acetate)
Crayon and chalk
Degradable plastics
Dessert powders
Dextrose (intravenous solutions, icing sugar)
Disposable diapers
Dyes
Edible oil
Ethyl and butyl alcohol
Explosives - firecrackers
Finished leather
Flour & grits
Frozen foods
Fructose
Fuel ethanol
Gypsum wallboard
Ink for stamping prices in stores
Insecticides
Instant coffee & tea
Insulation, fibreglass
James, jellies and preserves
Ketchup
Latex paint
Leather tanning
Licorice
Livestock feed
Malted products
Margarine
Mayonnaise
Mustard, prepared
Paper board, (corrugating, laminating, cardboard)
Paper manufacturing
Paper plates & Cups
Peanut butter
Pharmaceuticals - The Life Line of The Hospital
Potato chips
Rugs, carpets
Salad dressings
Shaving cream & lotions
Shoe polish
Soaps and cleaners
Soft drinks
Starch & glucose (over 40 types)
Syrup
Tacos, tortillas
Textiles
Toothpaste
Wallpaper
Wheat bread
Whiskey
Yogurts
Question: Of 10,000 items in a typical grocery store, how many would you guess would contain corn in one form or another?
Answer: At least 2,500 items use corn in some form during the production or processing.
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How Corn is Used in Some of these Products
Beer
Beer manufacturing is a process of treating malt to convert and extract the barley starch to fermentable sugars using the amyloytic enzymes present in malt followed by yeast fermentation. However, demand for lighter, less filling beer, especially in the U.S., has permitted use of more refined carbohydrate sources of two types:
a) dry adjuncts, primarily dry milled corn grits, broken rice, refined corn starch, and more recently, dextrose.
b) liquid adjuncts, namely corn syrups
Cake Mixes Cake mixes use a pregelatinized corn starch that will form a paste in cold or warm water. In baked goods that use yeast for rising, dextrose is used as a yeast nutrient.
Candies Corn syrup is used in hard candies to provide a body giving them chewiness and a desirable mouthfeel without excessive sweetness. Candies that are coated use a pyrodextrin corn starch for the coating.
Carbonated Beverages - Coke High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) blended with sucrose in a 50/50 blend is sweeter than the same concentration of sucrose. The use of HFCS in carbonated beverages is common throughout Canada and the U.S.
Cookies Corn starch, corn flour or dextrose may be found in cookies.
Corn Flakes The flaking grits are cooked to a rubbery consistency with syrup, malt, salt and flavouring added. After tempering, the cooked grits are flattened between large steel rolls, followed by toasting in travelling ovens to a golden brown colour.
Corn Starch Corn starch is derived from the wet milling process and is an important manufactured product. Some uses depend on the properties in the dry state, but most applications relate to its properties as a cooked, hydrated paste.
Corn Meal Corn meal is a popular dry corn product because of its long shelf life. It is used to produce an assortment of chemically leavened bread and fried products like corn bread and muffins.
Cosmetics Corncobs, when finely ground, are relatively dust free and very absorbent. This absorbency makes corncobs useful carriers for pesticides, fertilizers, vitamins, hand soaps, cosmetics and animal litters.
Granola Dips/Granola Bars Some types of Granola Dips use dextrose as a sweetener.
Gypsum Wallboard Starch-containing corn flour is gelatinized during the manufacturing process; It functions by controlling the rate of water loss during drying of the board. Soluble carbohydrates migrate to the surface and control the rate of crystallization of the gypsum, providing a strong bond between the gypsum and the liner.
Instant Coffee & Tea Maltodextrins are derived from the wet milling process. They are a dextrose equivalent product of complete solubility but little or no sweetness. Maltodextrins are sprayed on instant tea and coffee to keep the granules free flowing. This solution is also used in instant soup mixes or other packages where the contents must be be kept free flowing.
Mars Bar & Twix Bar Many candy bars contain corn syrup.
Paint and Varnish Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol is a resin developed from processing corncobs. These resins are useful in the paint and varnish industry as solvents for dyes, resins, and lacquers.
Paper Products Paper products use raw starch in the manufacturing process. The properties of high paste viscosity and strong gels are useful in specially coated papers. Pyrodextrins are also used for paper manufacturing for the adhesive property on remoistenable gums for postage stamps and packaging tape.
Pharmaceuticals
Aspirin - an oxidized starch paste, which dries to a clear, adherent, continuous film, is spread in a thin layer over the aspirin.Intravenous - some IVs consist of dextrose and water solutions.
Antibiotics - preferred carbohydrate sources are corn syrup, dextrose, corn starch, lactose and sucrose. Cornsteep liquor was early found to provide a ready source of soluble nitrogenous nutrients plus unknown growth factors that stimulate antibiotic production.
Over 85 different types of antibiotics are produced using corn.
Snack Foods - Corn Chips & Doritos These snack foods are generally made from whole corn (cornmeal). The high starch content of cornmeal and flour is important in giving a high puff in preparation of extruded (pressed) snack products in which a delicate corn flavour is desired.
Spark Plugs Starch is used in the production of the porcelain part of spark plugs.
Tire, Rubber In the production of tires, corn starch is sprinkled on the molds before pouring the rubber, to prevent the rubber from sticking to the molds.
Toothpaste Sorbitol, which is produced from the corn sugar dextrose, is used in toothpaste as a low-calorie, water-soluble, bulking agent.
Whiskey The major carbohydrate in the production of whiskey is corn.A typical Canadian whiskey is made from a mixture of about 90% corn, 5% rye, and 5% barley malt.
Yogurt Some of the different brands of yogurt use corn syrup as a sweetener.
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Even President Bush thinks corn ethanol production is driving up the prices of corn and corn based food products.
NY TimesBush Urges Action on Corn Price Rises Fueled by Ethanol
Article Tools Sponsored By
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: March 5, 2008
WASHINGTON President Bush said Wednesday that the national drive toward ethanol production was also driving up the cost of corn and other foods, a problem he said needed to be addressed.
The boom in alternative fuels, he said, was beginning to affect the price of food. And so we got to do something about it.
Mr. Bush has previously pointed out that the price of corn has been pushed up by competition from ethanol manufacturers and that this had raised costs for companies that raise beef and hogs on corn. But addressing a conference on renewable energy on Wednesday morning, Mr. Bush said that this was also affecting the price that consumers pay for food.
But, he said, the solution was not to back away from ethanol, but to develop ways to make ethanol from agricultural wastes, wood chips or similar materials. The Energy Department has spent nearly $1 billion trying to incubate a cellulosic ethanol industry, he said.
Mr. Bush said it was amazing to think how far our country has come in ethanol production, which reached 6.4 billion gallons last year, he said up from 1.6 billion gallons in 2007. Under the presidents goal of reducing gasoline consumption by 20 percent between 2007 and 2017, ethanol production would rise to about 35 billion gallons a year, far more than could be made from corn kernels.
Corn now sells for over $5 a bushel, up from under $2 in 2006. The price is so high that it has even scared off some potential builders of ethanol factories.