Agroindustrial project analysi

THE PROCESSING FACTOR 14715 percent, there is very little change in the proteins, carbohydrates,fats, vitamins, and minerals in cereal grains.In addition to its causing losses in the nutrients and organolepticqualities of grains, microbial growth can also produce toxic metabolitesthat, if consumed, may be hazardous to a person's health.Grain that has been damaged during storage by fermentation, insectand pest infestation, microbial respiration ("hot spots"), or sproutingis often mixed with sound grain to produce a mixture that isorganoleptically acceptable for human consumption. This is, however,a dangerous practice because of the microbial toxins thatstorage-damaged grains may contain, toxins that are not easilydestroyed by processing. Damaged grain of this kind also has inferiornutritional and sanitary qualities. Feeding damaged grains tolivestock is similarly dangerous because the animals may die of themicrobial toxins or the toxins may affect certain tissues that arelater consumed by humans. Damaged grain can be used to producecommercial alcohol. The process involves a distillation step that removesmicrobial toxins, and the ethanol yield from damaged grainis comparable to that of sound grain (unless there has been extensivecarbohydrate degradation)." Some nations have mixed grainalcohol with gasoline to make "gasohol," an alternative fuel(Brazil is making heavy investments to produce alcohol fromsugarcane and cassava for this purpose). 3 "Milled grain products are less stable to insect and pest infestation,microbial growth, and chemical degradation than unmilledwhole grains because milling removes the grain's protective seedcoat. Nevertheless, storage as for unmilled whole grains-in dry andcool conditions-will result in minimal nutrient changes and goodpalatability in milled products. One danger is that the fat in milledproducts may chemically oxidize and become rancid. Whole wheatflour, brown rice, and whole corn have shelf lives of only a fewweeks or months because they quickly become rancid. 3735. L. Zeleny, "Effects of Commercial Storage on the Nutrient Content ofProcessed Foods: Cereal Grains," and A. M. Altschul and R. W. Planck, "Effectsof Commercial Processing of Cereals on Nutrient Content: Rice and RiceProducts," both in Nutritional Evaluation of Food Processing, 1st ed., pp. 353and 204, respectively.36. World Bank, "Alcohol Production from Biomass."37. Zeleny, "Effects of Commercial Storage," p. 353.