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Insect Population Density and Post-harvest Quality of Rice
Nur Syafiqah Binti Abd Razak
Supervisor: Dr. Nurul Faziha Binti Ibrahim
Bachelor of Science Agrotechnology (Postharvest Technology)
School of Food Science and Technology
Deposition of rice weevil’s egg inside the grain kernel will tend to substantial losses
of local white rice during storage. Due to this infection, the duration of storage time
was decrease which lead to fungal contamination. In this study, the effects of insect
population density on post-harvest quality of rice were determined. For these
purposes, 50g of local white rice was incubated with 5 pairs of rice weevils and
reduction of post-harvest quality were determined. Based on this study,
carbohydrates content, protein content and pH were decrease over incubation time.
Moisture content, weight loss, brittleness and appearance were increase over
incubation time. Starch content did not show any changes. Average of Colony
Forming Unit (CFU) obtained in this study was 2.03X10⁸ CFU/ml at week 8. Therefore,
proper handling and processing of local white rice during harvesting is very important
to prevent development of rice weevil in the storage grain.
1064 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018