The effect of processing corn grain pertaining to extraneous materials in grit and corn meal

Abstract

The safety of the food is of strategic importance for public health and for the government business. In this paper the presence of extraneous materials was evaluated in CorIlKerncls and in the processed final product (grits and com mcal). Eighty-onc samples of com Kernels, eighty-one samples of grits, and eighty-onc samples of com meal, supplied by the industry, were taken during a period of four months in accordance with daily production. The analyses were done using appropriate methodologies and techniques, with modifications, described in the AOAC (Association of Officíal Analytical Chemists), 16 th edition, 1995 and in the Manual of Microscopic Analysis of Foods (Zamboni et alii, 1986).
Of the eighty-one samples of com grain analyzed by the method of straining with a sieve, 29.6% contained live insects, 28.4% contained dead insects, and 72.8% containcd metalic particles; while
analysis by the method of internal insect infestation, 79.0% of the samples contained entire larvas, 37.0% contained insect heads, and 27.5% contained entire inscets. Of the grits samples analyzcd by the flotation method, 76.5% showed the presence ofinsect fragments, while the same samples analyzed by the straining method showed a predominance in the presence of metalic particles, with an 81.5% occurrence. A high contamination of larvas in cornmeal was observed at 75.3%. In reference to the cornmeal, 79,0% of the samples would bc rejected by their containing inscet fragments above the tolerated lirnit, dead larva, pupas, dead insects, mites, and hair ofnon-identified animaIs. There was an increase in the Icvc1s of extrancous materials in grits and in conuneal due to infested com grain.