Corn in snacks: from maize balls to crackers

Corn is one of the most widely used snack bases in the world, for three reasons. Corn starch expands well under heat and pressure. Corn tastes mild and slightly sweet, so it takes seasoning easily. And corn is a familiar crop in Vietnam with a broad supply. At Color of Vietnam, corn is the base of the Maize Ball in our Let's PLAY jar. This piece follows corn from the kernel to the finished snack, for candidates and partners alike.

The forms corn arrives in

Few snack plants work with whole kernels. What goes into the line is usually one of three things:

• Corn grits: kernels with the hull and germ removed, milled to a coarse grain. This is the main raw material for puffed snacks.
• Fine corn flour: milled further, used for baked crackers made from a dough sheet, often blended with rice flour.
• Corn starch: starch only, used in small amounts to adjust crispness or expansion.

Grits stored too long or too damp turn rancid from the oil left in the germ, so the first thing we do with a flour sample is smell it.

Puffing: how a Maize Ball is made

Extrusion, which means cooking and shaping under pressure through a die, produces most corn snacks in ball or curl form. Grits are mixed with a little water and fed into a barrel with a rotating screw. The screw pushes the mass forward, and friction and heat cook the starch until it is soft and plastic. At the end of the barrel sits a die with small holes. As the hot mass leaves a hole, the pressure drops at once, the water in it turns to steam, and the mass expands into a light ball. A rotating knife cuts the strand into pieces.

A ball straight off the die is still moist and soft. It passes through a dryer to bring the moisture down, and only then does it become crisp. Then it goes into a tumbling drum, where it is sprayed with oil and dusted with seasoning.

What decides whether the ball is large or small, light or dense:

• The grit size: coarse for a denser ball, fine for a lighter one.
• The moisture of the grits before they enter the barrel.
• Barrel temperature and screw speed.
• The shape of the die hole and the speed of the knife.

Change any one of these and you have a different ball, which is why every trial sample we log carries its settings.

Baking: crackers from corn flour

The second route is baking. Fine corn flour, sometimes blended with rice flour, is worked into a dough, rolled into a sheet, cut and baked. A baked cracker is not airy like a puffed ball. It is denser, breaks with a snap rather than melting away, and tastes more of toasted corn, because its surface spends longer in contact with heat.

The two routes give two different eating experiences. Puffed balls suit a playful moment. Baked crackers suit people who like to chew. Among Color of Vietnam products, corn currently appears in the Maize Ball, while our Let's PLAY rice crackers follow the rice starch route.

Corn as a carrier of flavour

Corn's own taste is quiet. A quiet base is exactly why the same puffed ball can carry cheese, seaweed or plain salt. The surface of a puffed ball is full of tiny pores that hold oil and seasoning powder better than the smooth face of a baked cracker, which is why puffed snacks usually taste stronger for the same amount of seasoning.

For anyone working on seasoning, the important question is not how much to add but where it sits: mixed into the grits before extrusion, or dusted on after drying. Seasoning inside gives an even but muted taste. Seasoning outside meets the tongue first and is clear from the first bite.

An example: two grit sizes for the Maize Ball

Recently our partner facilities sent two Maize Ball samples, same seasoning, same die, differing only in the grit size of the corn going in. The fine grit gave a light ball that melted quickly and was very easy to eat. The coarse grit gave a denser ball with a rougher surface, which held more seasoning and made a sound when bitten.

At the review table the second-piece question split evenly. The deciding question was a different one: which ball would survive being picked up and put down for a whole game of Ô ăn quan. The snack in a Let's PLAY jar is a game piece. So we played one game with each sample. The fine-grit ball broke by the third pit and left crumbs on the board. The coarse-grit ball lasted the whole game.

The outcome: coarse grit for the jar, and from then on the Maize Ball sample slip has a line for grit size.

If you work in R&D, learn to look at a corn snack and guess the grit size, the moisture and the seasoning method behind it. Our Fresher Product R&D (FMCG) role in Hanoi is open on the Careers page. If you supply corn grits, or you are a partner who would like samples and the Maize Ball specification, contact us through the Contact page or at support@colorvietnam.com.