Microbiological Analyses in Grain Products: Important Steps in Food Safety and Quality Control
Grains, including wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice, and corn, constitute a crucial category of food. In terms of cultivation, production, and usage areas, grains are among the leading cultivated plants. Approximately 7 billion people worldwide meet around 50% of their daily energy needs directly from grains. Grains, such as wheat, which are the staple food source in many countries, are typically consumed as various bakery products like bread.
Wheat and wheat flour are of significant importance for human health and nutrition and should thus be produced under hygienic conditions. Harvested cereal grains may harbor some microorganisms on their outer surfaces due to contamination from soil, insects, or other environmental factors. Newly harvested grains may contain bacteria ranging from several thousand to millions per gram and mold spores ranging from zero to hundreds of thousands.
Microbial spoilage in grains and products, especially mold spoilage, can lead to significant economic losses. It is estimated that around 20% of cereal grains, which are considered to deteriorate due to reasons such as insect infestation or mold growth during storage, are damaged. This rate may be even higher in developing countries.
The slightly moist surfaces of cereal grains and the presence of oxygen facilitate mold growth. These molds are generally classified as field and storage molds. Field molds usually contaminate cereal grains before harvest and are transmitted from sources such as soil, water, and infected plants. Storage molds, on the other hand, can contaminate cereal grains during post-harvest drying or storage stages. These molds require lower levels of water activity compared to field molds to develop.
Grains and legumes should be free from moldy, infested, or broken grains and should not contain foreign materials such as dust, soil, and stones. These products should be stored in dry, cool, dark, and well-ventilated places, usually at temperatures of 5-10°C and relative humidity levels of 60%.
Microbiological Analyses in Grains
The most commonly encountered bacteria in cereal samples are Micrococcus, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Bacillus. The most common molds are Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Mucor, Monilia, Rhizopus.
Microbiology analyses such as Total Aerobic Mesophilic Bacteria (TAMB), Coliform Bacteria, Mold, Rope Spore, and Count analyses are routinely conducted on raw material and flour samples in grain products.
The global food industry has made significant strides with scientific and technological advancements. The rapid progress in food sciences and technologies has increasingly emphasized the importance of food quality and control due to rationalization in the food industry and issues related to storage and transportation, as well as incorrect practices in these areas.
Bastak Instruments, serving with superior technological features for a quarter of a century at its 5-Star R&D and Innovation Center, continues its efforts for food safety and assurance with ICC Standard No.189 and 192, which it has made available to the world.
Among the areas where it offers laboratory solutions from A-Z with its 72 types of food, flour, cereal, seed, oilseed, legume, and feed quality control devices it produces are microbiology laboratories.
With its unique measurement capabilities and sensitivities, in addition to many microbiology laboratory equipment such as Bastak Brand Dry Heat Sterilizer, Incubator, Biochemical Cabinet, pH Meter, freezer, refrigerator, water bath, and homogenizer, glass materials include petri dishes, pipettes, measuring cylinders, balloons, tubes, Erlenmeyer flasks, Drigalski spatulas, beakers, and bottles. Among metal materials are spatulas, inoculation loops, and needles, while among other materials are Bunsen burners, test tube racks, cleaning and disinfection materials, dehydrated culture media, colony counters, scales, various paint and solution containers, as well as various thermometers and manometers.
Bastak Instruments assists many laboratories worldwide in meeting reliability and accuracy standards with devices produced in compliance with international standards. Devices based on ICC standard methods serve as a guide for food producers and control laboratories and serve as an internationally accepted standard in international trade.
