Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

A very small scale laboratory procedure (≈20 g) is needed to test wet-milling characteristics of corn when amounts of corn available for testing are quite limited. The objective of this study was to downscale 10-g and 100-g laboratory wet-milling methods already widely used to measure wet-milling properties of 20-g of corn. A Standard 10-g and 100-g procedure, a Modified 100-g and 10-g procedure, and an Experimental 20-g procedure were compared using six corn verities with known differences in enzymatic wet-milling (enzyme concentration 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% & 2%) and steeping time (15 Hrs, 20 Hrs, 25 Hrs & 30 Hrs) properties also. Germ and fibre separation was conducted differently for each procedure and probably accounts for these differences when decanting methods was used. Enzyme Concentration and steeping time effects on the starch/gluten separation were more pronounced when the Experimental 20-g procedure was used, which may allow for more discrimination among corn. Although most fraction yields are too small to run replicates for analytical tests, the Experimental 20-g procedure will be useful in measuring milling efficiency of early generations of hybrids corn where limited samples are available, such as when valuable recombinant proteins are expressed for therapeutics and industrial enzymes.