Food Engineering takes the humita cuencana abroad

Students from the Food Engineering career at the UDA participated in the International Congress "Cereals 17", organized by the American Association of Cereals Chemists (AACCI).

Cristina Quintero and David Restrepo traveled on behalf of a team of four students that also included María José Carrera and Paulo Quizhpi.

The American Association of Cereals Chemists (AACCI) is a global scientific organization dedicated to the science of clinical laboratory and its application in medical care.

The congress, which ran from 8 to 11 in October in San Diego, United States, focused on this edition mainly on the use and handling of cereals.

Among the slogans to participate in the congress it was established that the product to be presented was innovative and that in its composition it had a minimum 50% of one cereal. In the proposal of the UDA the chosen cereal was the corn, using it in a humita or chumal, as it is known in Ecuador.

Quintero and Restrepo began the experimentation process under the tutelage of Marco Lazo, UDA teacher, about eight months ago, starting the same with the extraction of the cheese that a humita commonly has and testing with several types of Lactobacillus ( about four) to achieve-through fermentation-that the product's mass has a cheese flavor.

The chosen one and the one that gave the best original flavor to the humita was Lactobacillus CASEI.

In the normal process of making a humita people prepare the dough and place it directly on the leaves of the corn for cooking or sometimes let it rest, it is just the process of letting the dough rest which has never been studied, fermentation that it experiences during that period.

This is how naturally, during fermentation, the taste of humita is similar to when it is made with cheese, achieving a probiotic humita thanks to the existence of Lactobacillus CASEI in it.

During their stay and exhibition at the congress, the children commented that the reception they had was successful, since the flavor delighted them and the presentation they had, the fermented corn mass wrapped in corn leaves, attracted a lot of attention and caused the attendees they passed more than once through the stand of the "MarshCorn", name that they gave to the mass creating thus a mark which made the product more understandable for the English speaking people.

It should be noted that the exhibitors who attended the congress are doctoral professionals and that the UDA students, on the other hand, were the only ones who were still studying for the undergraduate program, an achievement that is part of the UDA's internationalization process from the projects of your students.