This spring, Pete Lien & Sons representatives traveled to Las Vegas to attend the annual Tortilla Industry Association Convention, one of the leading events for professionals involved in tortilla and corn-based food production. The convention brought together manufacturers, suppliers, and industry experts from across the country to discuss emerging trends, innovations, and best practices within the tortilla industry.
Throughout the event, there were opportunities to connect with industry professionals and showcase Pete Lien & Sons’ food-grade hydrated lime products. Visitors to the company’s booth learned about the important role high-quality hydrated lime plays in the nixtamalization process, a critical step in tortilla production. Hydrated lime helps soften corn, making it easier to grind during manufacturing while enhancing the nutritional value, flavor, and aroma of tortillas. It also helps reduce naturally occurring mycotoxins, contributing to a safer and higher-quality finished product.
Produced from naturally occurring high-purity limestone at the most sustainable food grade lime production facility in the USA, NutriLien HQ is carefully manufactured to meet rigorous food-grade standards and is ideally suited for nixtamalization and a variety of other food processing applications.
In addition to tortilla production, NutriLien products are used in food preservation and pickling, baking and dough conditioning, calcium fortification, dairy processing, sugar refining, and water treatment applications. The product’s consistent quality and strong food safety standards continue to make it a trusted choice for food manufacturers throughout North America.
The convention provided an excellent opportunity for Pete Lien & Sons to strengthen industry relationships, share product expertise, and demonstrate the company’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality, dependable solutions for food production customers. There were valuable insights gained and renewed connections with industry partners, helping support the company’s continued growth in the food-grade market for generations to come.
About the Tortilla Industry Association:
The Tortilla Industry Association (TIA) was created in 1989 to serve the emerging tortilla industry, now the fastest growing segment of the baking industry. In the U.S., annual sales of tortillas exceed all other ethnic and specialty bread sales, including bagels, croissants, muffins and pita bread.
Based in Arlington, Virginia directly across the Potomac River from our Nation’s Capital, TIA is a not-for-profit organization whose members include tortilla manufacturers, industry suppliers and distributors around the world and companies with interests in the rapidly growing tortilla industry. TIA’s function is to assist these companies, both large and small, to grow through effective management and marketing techniques. TIA also addresses management, regulation, quality control and distribution issues and provides members with educational support through technical seminars, conventions and market research.
As the nationally recognized representative for companies in the tortilla industry, TIA seeks to promote the consumption of this traditional Mexican bread, specifically alternative uses of tortillas in mainstream American fare, such as sandwiches, soups and desserts.