Can Sweet Corn Be Eaten Raw? Learn These Facts Before Eating It Raw

Corn is one of China's four major staple grains, which shows that corn holds a fairly important place in our daily lives. We usually eat corn after cooking it. So can sweet corn be eaten raw?

Sweet corn or fruit corn is a kind of super-sweet corn suitable for eating raw. It can be eaten directly raw; its thin skin breaks with a single bite, and the fresh, fragrant juice fills the mouth. Eaten raw or cooked, it is especially sweet and crisp, just like a fruit, which is why it is called “fruit corn”. Other types of corn are generally hard to eat raw, and few people try eating them raw.

Corn is still better eaten cooked. Although eating sweet corn raw can preserve more nutrients, and cooking causes sweet corn to lose some vitamin C, it also gains greater nutritional value and higher antioxidant activity, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The endosperm of fruit corn contains sugar, which is why fruit corn tastes sweet. According to the different monosaccharide content in the endosperm, sweet corn is divided into three types: ordinary sweet corn, enhanced sweet corn and super-sweet corn, which have different uses in food processing and production. Ordinary sweet corn: sugar content about 8%, mostly used for canned paste or whole-kernel processing, and also for quick-freezing; enhanced sweet corn: sugar content 12%-16%, mostly used for canned whole-kernel or paste processing, quick-freezing, and fresh cobs for market. Super-sweet corn: sugar content above 20%, with a thicker pericarp, mostly used for canned whole-kernel processing, quick-freezing or fresh cobs for market.