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INA-011) <br /> GTMProducts <br /> I N T E R N A T I O N A L <br /> Contact: Mark Lindley <br /> Director, Corporate Communications <br /> 708-551-2602 <br /> THE CORN WET MILLING PROCESS <br /> Corn is converted into various products including sweeteners, starches and oil. The <br /> process begins with shelled yellow dent corn that has been removed from the cob <br /> during harvesting. <br /> 1. INSPECTION AND CLEANING <br /> Refinery staff inspect arriving corn shipments and clean <br /> them twice to remove cob, dust, chaff and foreign <br /> materials before steeping. Corn refining has been the <br /> 1� fastest growing market for U.S. agriculture over the past <br /> Ile it twenty years, and refiners now use around 16% of the $21 <br /> billion U.S. corn crop. Each day the production of about <br /> 35,000 acres of corn arrives at corn refining facilities <br /> before conversion to food, industrial and feed products. <br /> 2. STEEPING <br /> l rr �t Each stainless steel steep tank holds about 3,000 <br /> I� <br /> bushels of corn for 30 to 40 hours. During steeping, the <br /> kernels absorb water, increasing their moisture levels <br /> from 15 percent to 45 percent and more than doubling in <br /> size. As the corn swells and softens, the steepwater <br /> begins to loosen the gluten bonds within the corn and <br /> release the starch. After steeping, the corn is coarsely <br /> ground to break the germ loose from other components. <br /> Steepwater is condensed to capture nutrients in the <br /> water for use in animal feeds and for a nutrient for later fermentation processes. The <br /> ground corn, in a water slurry, flows to the germ separators. <br /> -more- <br />