Book Review: Tortillas Wheat Flour and Corn Products

Corn, Zea mays L., is the cereal with the highest production rate around the world, with an estimated production that exceeded 1021 million tons in 2014 (1). Corn is also the staple food for over 900 million people located in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Around 600 million people are corn dependent, including 120 million malnourished children (2). As an example, the average per capita consumption of corn in Mexico is more than 125 kg/year (342 g/day), and it provides one-third of the total daily calorie intake (1). Likewise, wheat, Triticum aestivum, is the world's most relevant food crop and the most traded. In 2014, global production of wheat reached 728 millions of tons (1). In the developing world, it is the second most important crop after rice. Wheat feeds about 2.5 billion of poor people in 90 countries (3). Wheat provides 20% of the total calories consumed globally and is considered also as a crucial source of protein. Approximately 80 million farmers in the developing world depend on wheat for their livelihoods (2). Corn and wheat are the base for the manufacturing of an array of important staples, including tortillas, which are considered as the most important staple food for the Mexico and some Latin American countries (1). The relevance of both corn and wheat tortillas are beyond Latin American countries. Nowadays, it is possible to find tortilla products in every continent around the world thanks to the global commercialization of foods. Corn tortillas and related products are obtained from two main manufacturing processes that include traditional and commercial dry-masa flours (4). Taking all these aspects into account, this book aimed to: (a) provide a deep review of production and processing of tortillas for both corn and wheat, (b) the nutritional and nutraceutical features related to these important food products, and (c) provide full technical information for understanding the properties, quality assurance, and the industry involved in the making and different uses of tortillas. The book deserves credit for being the first of its kind in the market. Furthermore, the specific attraction of this volume is its comprehensive and outstanding collection of the current scientific and technical information about the history, nutritional/nutraceutical properties, industrial processing and manufacturing, end-quality control, and technology of tortillas and their related products. Needless to say, the tortilla industry and academia needed this comprehensive an updated reference book. In my opinion, the editors …