We present a direct torque and flux control (DTFC) design for an electric induction motor using a sliding-mode control technique. A distinctive feature of our approach is that, by appropriately parameterizing and implementing the sliding-mode controller, we explicitely take into account the discontinuous nature of the actuator in the design process. As a result, we obtain an improved implementation of DTFC, wich significantly reduces the levels of steady-state ripple with respect to those typically obtained with conventional implementations of DTFC.