The problem of water pollution
caused by tortilla production has steadily increased. Today, with
an annual consumption of 12 million tons of tortillas, it is a
difficult problem to control. From 3,000 to 10,000 liters of water
are needed for every ton of corn to wash and rinse the nixtamal.
The nejayote is the waste water from the nixtamal and contains
large quantities of soluble solids and lime. In Mexico, some 800
million tortillas are consumed every day and this means that rivers
of polluted water are produced that have a dramatic impact on
the ecology of the country. On the other hand, cooking tortillas
and nixtamal indirectly with natural gas is very inefficient,
since 50% of the energy consumed is lost as heat pollution
