Chemical Composition of Corn Flour: Moisture, Ash, Fat, and Nutritional Properties
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Corn flour should contain no more than 15% moisture, no more than 0.8% ash (the mineral salt content), and no more than 1.8% fat calculated on a dry-matter basis. These quality limits define a sound, storable flour and form the baseline for assessing its composition.
The remaining chemical composition of corn flour, compared with wheat and rye flour, is shown below. The figures are drawn from the reference work "Tables of the Chemical Composition and Nutritional Value of Foods."
| Flour | Content in % | Calories per 100 g of flour | |||||
| water | protein | fat | carbohydrates | fiber | ash | ||
| Corn | 14.0 | 9.6 | 1.7 | 72.1 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 351 |
| Wheat, grade 1 | 14.0 | 11.0 | 1.1 | 72.9 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 354 |
| Sifted rye | 14.0 | 8.9 | 1.2 | 74.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 353 |
As these figures show, corn flour is practically equal to wheat and rye flour in calorie content, supplying about 351 calories per 100 grams against 354 for grade 1 wheat flour and 353 for sifted rye. Corn flour also carries the highest fat (1.7%) and fiber (1.4%) levels of the three, while its protein content of 9.6% sits between that of wheat and rye.
