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Tortilla chips belong to the snack product group, which are popular foods in the diet of the widest population. However, they are characterized by an increased content of fat and salt, while the dietary fibers content is decreased. Snack products with such a nutritional composition can cause metabolic disorders cardiovascular and oncological diseases. The main goal of this research was to formulate nutritionally improved tortilla chips, with reduced fat and salt content and increased fiber content. This can be achieved by applying a basic raw material with functional properties such as dark red corn, as well as by modification in the final stage of processing tortilla chips. Dark red corn is a highly nutritional raw material with health effect derived from anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds. Flour from dark red corn was utilized for the production of tortilla chips. The proportions at the final mix were 80:20 mass percents (corn: wheat). Tortilla chips were moulded and baked in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 min.

The objective of this study was to relate the tortilla minimum integral desorption entropy with acrylamide content during processing of tortilla chips. Tortilla pieces were stored at 30 °C at aw of 0.11-0.84 for 4 days and fried later in soybean oil at 180 °C for 25 s. The lowest acrylamide content was observed in tortilla chips made of non-stored tortilla (aw = 0.98) as well as in those prepared from tortilla stored in the minimum integral entropy (aw = 0.53). In addition, the color and texture values were similar in both cases. These results suggest that the reduction of the acrylamide content during processing of tortilla chips and other tortilla based foods thermally processed might be modified by factors such as moisture content, aw, and the physical state of water in the tortilla. Thus, the minimum integral entropy showed to be a reliable indicator to establish the most appropriate moisture conditions to obtain tortilla chips with reduced level of acrylamide when tortilla is dehydrated. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

La biofortificación de cultivos básicos de la canasta familiar para incrementar el contenido de carotenoides es una estrategia prometedora y costo-eficiente para combatir diferentes enfermedades de interés en salud pública. Sin embargo, la utilización de alimentos biofortificados en la elaboración de productos procesados, que logren mantener niveles adecuados de carotenoides en el producto final, es crucial para el éxito de esta estrategia. Dado este panorama, este proyecto tuvo como objetivo caracterizar el impacto del procesamiento de maíz para la elaboración de tortillas y chips de tortilla incorporando genotipos comerciales e híbridos biofortificados de maíz sobre la estabilidad de los carotenoides. Como resultados se observó que tanto los híbridos experimentales como los genotipos comerciales cuentan con porcentajes de pérdidas similares de carotenoides durante el procesamiento; sin embargo, los híbridos experimentales muestran una concentración final de carotenoides totales cerca de tres veces mayor en comparación con los genotipos comerciales debido a la biofortificación con la cual cuentan estos genotipos. Asi mismo, tres porciones de 50g de tortillas o tortillas chips elaboradas a partir de los híbridos experimentales lograrían cumplir con la recomendación mínima de consumo de carotenoides diarios (~3–6 mg/día) según el Instituto de Medicina de los Estados Unidos, para un posible efecto en salud. De esta investigación se destaca igualmente, la viabilidad a nivel industrial del uso de dos híbridos experimentales dado a sus características visco elásticas, que permiten otorgar características específicas de elongación a las tortillas, además de un alto rendimiento a nivel industrial.