Corn flour is milled from maize (corn) from which the outer hull, germ, and gluten are removed. The corn wet milling process separates corn into its four basic components: starch, germ, fiber, and protein.

There are four processing steps necessary to obtain corn flour:

1. The corn is soaked for 30 to 40 hours, which starts the process of breaking the starch and protein bonds.
2. The resultant mixture is coarsely ground to separate the germ from the rest of the kernel.
3. The remaining slush is then finely ground and separated into fiber, starch, and protein.
4. The starch is further screened in hydrocyclones (machinery that works on a centrifuge basis), after which it is dried.