The laboratory -developed tortilla contains probiotics – living microorganisms found in yogurt and other fermented foods.
Looking through a microscope, the food scientist Raquel Gomez studies microorganisms that add nutrients and preserve tortillas for several weeks without refrigerators – luxury in depleted Mexican communities.
The humble tortilla is a must-see Mexican, consumed in tacos and other dishes by millions of people every day, from the arid Nordic deserts of the Latin American nation to its tropical southern jungle.
Most Mexicans buy fresh corn tortillas in small neighborhood stores.
The version of the wheat flour developed by Gomez and his team contains probiotics – life microorganisms found in yogurt and other fermented foods.
In addition to the nutritional advantages, fermented ingredients mean that tortilla can be maintained up to a month without refrigeration, much longer than this house, according to its creators.
It was developed “with the most vulnerable people,” AFP Gomez, professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) told AFP.
Almost 14% of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition in Mexico, according to official figures.
In indigenous communities, the figure is around 27%.
Unaffordable fridge
The tortilla developed by Gomez is not yet available in the trade, but it could benefit people like Teresa Sanchez.
The food scientist Raquel Gomez returns a tortilla which can be kept for weeks outside a refrigerator in a university laboratory in Mexico.
The 46 -year -old housewife smokes meat using a wood stove in her house with wooden walls and a metal roof.
Like most of its neighbors in the city of Oxchuc, in the southern state of the chiapas, Sanchez has no refrigerator, it therefore uses the methods transmitted by its native Tzeltal ancestors.
“My mother taught me and the grandparents always do this in this way,” she told AFP.
“Where are you going to get a refrigerator if there is no money?”
Less than two thirds of people in chiapas, a poverty region with a large native population, have a lowest refrigerator among the 32 states of Mexico.
The average maximum temperature of chiapas increased from 30.1 to 32 degrees Celsius between 2014 and 2024, according to official estimates.
Half of its territory is considered vulnerable to climate change.
While Oxchuc is located in a mountainous and temperate area, the lack of refrigerators forces its inhabitants to rely on traditional methods of preserving food.
Refrigerators are always a luxury for some Mexicans, such as these members of the native Tzeltal community who smokes meat to preserve it instead.
“We are thinking of what we are going to eat and how many of us are. We are boiling, and if there are any, we are boiling again,” said Sanchez.
Sometimes the meat is salty and left to dry under the sun.
The tortillas are stored in containers made from tree bark.
For this reason, Sanchez makes purchases only for naked necessities, although its budget is limited anyway.
“I don’t have much money to buy things,” she said.
No preservatives
Gomez and his team use prebiotics – which are mainly in fiber foods – to feed probiotic crops and produce healthy health compounds, she said.
Thanks to fermented ingredients, no artificial curator is necessary in the laboratory tortilla, said Gomez.
This is another advantage because these additives have potentially toxic effects, said Guillermo Arteaga, researcher at the University of Sonora.
Tortilla is a Mexican basic food, consumed in tacos and other dishes per millions per day.
One of the most commonly used additives in transformed wheat flour tortillas is the calcium propionate, which is considered harmful to the colon microbiota, said Arteaga.
Although its tortilla is made of wheat flour – a type eaten mainly in northern Mexico – Gomez does not exclude using the same method for corn tortillas, which are preferred by many Mexicans but can quickly turn at high temperatures.
The researchers patented their tortilla in 2023. UNAM signed a contract with a company to market food, but the agreement failed.
Gomez, who won a prize in December from the Mexican Institute for Industrial Property, still hopes to find partners to distribute his tortillas.
She is convinced that even if they have been developed in a laboratory, consumers will always want to eat them.
© 2025 AFP
Quote: Mexico scientists develop a tortilla for people without refrigerator (2025, May 13) recovered on May 13, 2025 from
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