The invention of the corn wet milling process played a crucial role in the emergence of commercially produced oil and starch from corn. Before wet milling, starch primarily came from wheat and potatoes, and corn was not utilized as a source for either starch or oil.
The roots of the corn wet milling industry can be traced back to 1844 when Thomas Kingsford, a British immigrant working at Wm. Colgate & Company in Jersey City, NJ, persuaded his employer to experiment with a new alkali process for extracting starch from corn.
This facility became the world's first dedicated corn starch plant. Kingsford eventually established his own corn starch factory a few years later in Oswego, NY. By 1860, corn starch was being produced in small plants across the United States.
Production volume fluctuated during the latter part of the 1800s but began steadily increasing after 1900. In 1895, there were five wheat starch plants and sixteen corn starch plants or factories in the United States.
Kingsford's invention was actually based on a process for extracting vegetable starch invented by Orlando Jones, an Englishman, in 1840. Kingsford simply adapted Jones's method for use with corn. His method involved soaking corn kernels in an alkaline substance and then grinding them. This process came to be known as wet milling.
Initially, the corn industry discarded the maize fiber, corn germ, and protein obtained during processing. However, over time, the wet milling process underwent gradual changes, leading to the utilization of non-starch components in various applications within the animal feed, oil, polymer, and pharmaceutical industries.
While the wet milling process is primarily used for starch extraction from corn, its application has recently been expanded to the separation of different grain fractions in cereals and pseudo-cereals.
Corn oil was initially extracted for commercial cooking purposes toward the end of the 19th century. Following the earlier success of corn starch, corn oil gained popularity as a household ingredient in the mid-1900s.
History of corn wet milling process in United States
