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Get to know your maize meal ABC's: A taste of tradition
- Malcom T
- Aug 1, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 14, 2023
Maize meal is an absolute household essential for any home on the continent, even though it's not native to Africa. Thanks to its long history, we believe it has rightfully earned its place as a firm favorite and an essential staple for many African households.
When it comes to maize meals, we pride ourselves in milling our House Brands the African way, meaning we value preserving the essential nutrients to ensure that your body is filled with enough vitamins and minerals for the strength you need.
In case you’re wondering about the Vitamins and Minerals in our milled maize meal, here’s a breakdown of all you need to know about them.
People get vitamins by eating plants and animal products to keep them healthy. Minerals on the other hand are important for building bones and teeth. They are loaded with great benefits for energy to work, learn and play.
We are proud to contribute immensely to essential food-based guidelines for healthy eating with our mills that make starch foods the basis of most meals. You may e wondering what’s special about our top three mills? Here are some interesting things you may want to know:
Umgaiwa, umgayiwa or mugaiwa is an unrefined mealie meal, different from a super-refined mealie meal in that it retains most of its nutrients without being fortified. We know we have had a few eyebrows raised over the spelling of our brand name but allow us some creative leeway it is after all a common name in Zambia including the way we spell it.
Roller meal is almost similar to Umgaiwa, the hull (the leafy outer covering of an ear of maize | corn) and germ (a high energy digestive with a slow release of starch) are mostly removed, leaving mostly starchy endosperm – a major storage tissue, storing both starch and protein. It is the origin of white flour produced by milling.
Super refined maize meal is often called the breakfast meal, we assume it’s because of the smoothness that earned it its name from breakfast porridges. Using parts where it’s rich in protein and starch all the husk | hull and maize germ are removed completely. It carries at 65% extraction compared to the other mills. Although it may rank lower, it makes up for the smooth and velvety finish when cooked.
Whatever your taste profile is, you can trust that having a variety of options makes for the best experience for any meal. All you have to do is simply look through our nutritional breakdown to make sure you get the right nutrients and minerals you need to keep in sync with your dietary requirements.