Maize Bran

The pericarp is almost entirely fibre — a cellulose and hemicellulose structure with very little starch, protein, or oil of its own. What varies between mills is how much endosperm comes off attached to it, and that adhering starch, more than the pericarp itself, drives the feeding value of the stream. Tempering and degermination settings therefore determine bran composition as a side effect of a decision made about the meal.

• Feed — a fibre source in compound feeds and on-farm rations, particularly for ruminant livestock
• Feed — sold blended with other mill fractions as hominy feed or similar
• Food — a minor dietary fibre ingredient where it is separated cleanly
• Energy — burned as a mill fuel where no better outlet exists

Bran concentrates whatever sits on or just under the kernel surface, which has a direct safety consequence. Surface-borne contamination and mycotoxins present in the incoming grain do not distribute evenly through milling: the outer fractions tend to carry proportionally more. The condition of the maize the mill bought therefore shows up in the bran, and feed limits apply to the stream on its own terms.

Bran is the awkward stream of a maize mill: very low in bulk density, so it takes up disproportionate volume in bins and trucks, and dusty in handling. Pelleting is common, and it is done for logistics rather than nutrition — a pelleted bran moves and stores at a fraction of the volume of a loose one. It picks up moisture readily and, with adhering starch and some residual oil from the germ separation, does not keep indefinitely.