Blue corn flour in traditional cookies and its measured properties
What it found
Cookies made with whole blue corn flour had more antioxidant compounds than wheat versions.
People tasting them preferred the color, flavor, and overall quality of the blue corn cookies.
What they found
Studies in people
Taste and appearance
People tasting the cookies preferred the ones made with blue corn flour over the wheat versions. They rated the blue corn cookies higher for color, flavor, and overall acceptability.
Other findings
Antioxidant plant compounds
Blue corn cookies contained 837.1 mg gallic acid/kg of phenolics and 373.0 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/kg of anthocyanins. These levels were higher than in both lab-made and store-bought wheat cookies, leading to greater antioxidant activity.
Changes during baking
Baking the raw blue corn flour into cookies broke down some of the acylated anthocyanins. They turned into non-acylated forms during the process.
Basic nutrient makeup
All the cookie samples showed similar basic nutritional composition. Swapping wheat flour for blue corn flour did not change this.
What the authors conclude
- They found that whole blue corn flour can replace wheat flour in these traditional cookies.
- Their results show the blue corn version offers more beneficial plant compounds than refined wheat products.
- The authors note that people also liked the taste and look of the blue corn cookies better.
How it was done
Blue corn is rich in plant pigments called anthocyanins. The authors wanted to see how it performs when baked into a traditional flour-based sweet treat.
They baked polvorones, a traditional cookie, using whole blue corn flour instead of wheat flour. They compared these to cookies made in the lab with wheat flour and to store-bought wheat versions. They measured nutrients, plant compounds, and asked people to taste them.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This work measured compounds in food, not health outcomes in people who ate it over time. It cannot show whether eating these cookies changes your health. The taste test was short and does not reveal long-term eating habits.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Mexico
The paper
- Title
- Nutraceutical, Physicochemical, and Sensory Properties of Blue Corn polvorones, a Traditional Flour-Based Confectionery
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Vázquez-Carrillo MG, Aparicio-Eusebio LA, Salinas-Moreno Y, Buendía-Gonzalez MO, Santiago-Ramos D (2018). Nutraceutical, Physicochemical, and Sensory Properties of Blue Corn polvorones, a Traditional Flour-Based Confectionery. Plant foods for human nutrition (Dordrecht, Netherlands). doi:10.1007/s11130-018-0692-zPubMed 30284109DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error