Hammond's Cargill plant helps make food taste, look good

BY LU ANN FRANKLIN, Times of Northwest Indiana Correspondent

HAMMOND | Turning Indiana's corn crops into food-grade starch and sweeteners has been the mission of one Northwest Indiana business for more than 100 years.

Cargill, formerly American Maize, uses every part of the corn kernel to make more than 300 products used for everything from animal feed to the substance that keeps marshmallows from sticking together in the package.

"We process three million pounds of product a day," said Jim Fritz, facility manager.

Corn from Indiana farms arrives by truck or train car at the Hammond plant on a daily basis. Different types of corn help produce a variety of products, and Cargill contracts with some farmers to grow waxy maize that is not genetically altered for certain international customers.

Processing the raw kernels into starch and syrups requires a "mechanically intense procedure" that includes soaking, drying and breaking the corn into its parts, Fritz said.

The 88-acre plant has a long history of providing corn starch and sugars that are used in a vast array of food and non-food products. With its original facility built in 1906, the corn milling factory began operation the following year.

By 1908, it became American Maize Products Co. with the capacity of processing 10,000 bushels of corn. At one time, the factory employed 850 area residents, some generations of the same families. Sold to Cerestar's Paris-based parent company in 1995, the plant was restructured and its work force reduced.

Cargill acquired the plant in 2002 and made changes such as adding a test kitchen where employees make batches of cookies and pies.

Some of the recipes test customers' formulas. Others are created by the staff to check how Cargill's products provide the proper texture or "mouth feel," Fritz said.

"A lot of what we eat and enjoy is the feel of the food in the mouth," Fritz said. "Our products make food look good."

For example, the Hammond plant pioneered the instant pudding that comedian Bill Cosby touted in TV ads. One of Cargill's corn products keeps yogurt from separating while another provides the crispness in batter used to fry foods. Puddings and gravy thicken because of Cargill's products.

Two recent innovations initiated at the Hammond plant include a low-sugar product used to make energy bars and a specialty starch made from sorghum that helps one major American brewery make gluten-free beer.

"Our motto is 'Nourishing People'," Fritz said.