Héctor Abel Palacios

In this review, we present a description of conventional technologies and new advances for the estimation and sense of moisture content in grains. The operating principles, accuracies and response times are described. The review considers an exhaustive search of scientific developments and patent registrations. It was concluded that most of the new developments correspond to methods of which the measurement principles are based on the analysis of the electrical characteristics of the grains. In addition, new methods of image analysis have been implemented that provide measurements with reduced response times and with precisions of utility for its application in the agro-industrial field. In addition to this, wireless communication technologies have been implemented that allow the implementation of moisture measurement methods in moving grains within processing chains.

This study evaluated the fungal incidence through direct plating in Agar Dichloran Glycerol, and the presence of aflatoxins in maize samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador by HPLC, investigating the influence of the temperature, altitude, water activity, and humidity of the collection regions on the maize samples’ contamination using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The overall kernel infection by fungi was usually lower in samples from the Highlands, and no aflatoxins or Aspergillus series Flavi were detected in the samples from this region. In the coastal samples, Aspergillus sp. were isolated from all samples, while the potentially aflatoxigenic A. Flavi contaminated about 80% of them. Aflatoxins were present in 50% of these samples, in ranges from 0.42 to 107.69 µg/kg. PCA was able to segregate the samples according to their collection region, and showed that the maximum and minimum temperatures are closely and positively related to the presence of A. Flavi. A highly positive relationship was also observed between the water activity of the sample and aflatoxin contamination. On the other hand, the altitude had a very strong—but negative—relationship with the variables studied. This study is relevant because data regarding fungi and aflatoxin occurrence, as well the main factor influencing the contamination of Ecuadoran maize, are scarce; it clearly shows that aflatoxins are a hazard present in maize from the Ecuadorian Coast but not the Highlands.

Resumo Componentes como açúcares e ácidos clorogênicos, que são acumulados durante a maturação dos grãos de café, possuem importante papel na qualidade da bebidanão somente atribuído a sua alta concentração, mas também às alterações ocorridas nos grãos durante a torração. Os açúcares predominantes nos grãos de café são frutose, glicose e sacarose. Porém, os ácidos clorogênicos podem ser responsáveis pela desvalorização na qualidade da bebida, devido à intensa degradação térmica durante o processamento dos grãos. Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a composição química destas duas substâncias durante as etapas pós-colheita em cafés colhidos em diferentes estádios de maturação, pela técnica de Cromatografia Liquída de Alta Eficiência (CLAE). Com relação aos monoisômeros dos ácidos clorogênicos, o teor de 5-acido cafeoilquinico (5-CQA) teve aumento durante o processamento dos grãos, apesar de ter se mantido instável durante as etapas de secagem em terreiro. Os três lotes estudados foram: Lote 1, representado por 90% frutos cereja + 10% frutoscru; Lote 2, frutos 100% cereja; e Lote 3, 85% frutos boia + 10% frutos cereja + 5% frutos cru. Esses lotes diferiram significativamente entre si com relação ao teor de 5-CQA. Com referência ao lote 2, este foi o lote que apresentou a maior concentração de 5-CQA, por outro lado, durante o processo de torração e elaboração da bebida, ocorreu redução no teor de 5-CQA. Os teores dos isômeros 3 e 4 não apresentaram uma tendência definida de aumento ou diminuição durante o processamento. Com relação aos açúcares, uma maior concentração de sacarose foi encontrada no lote 3. Ainda vale ressaltar que o teor de sacarose teve um aumento durante o processamento, enquanto os teores de frutose e glicose teve uma diminuição. Após a torração, os níveis de sacarose, frutose e glicose diminuíram significativamente, e não houvedetectação tanto de glicose quanto de frutose nos grãos torrados. O método escolhido para a determinação dos açúcares e ácidos clorogênicos foi considerado eficiente diante dos resultados obtidos durante a validação dos métodos.

The importance of humidity moisture determination for storage and harvesting lies in the quality and safety of raw materials, process control and food preservation. There is research that comparing methodologies with significant differences, but none is applied in to hard corn, so in this paper the following objectives are established: 1) Develop standards of hard corn with seven degrees of humidity to ensure homogeneity. 2) Compare six different methodologies for determining of determination of humidity in the ranges of 10-16%. A homogeneity test was performed using the equation of Gough, 1975 and a statistical (DBCA). After verifying that the batches of corn were homogeneous within and between the bags, we proceeded to compare five methodologies in which where an analysis of variance was applied, followed by a Tukey test at 5%. For the homogeneity results inside and between the covers, the lots were homogeneous. For the results of the comparison of methodologies, significant statistical differences were found in the application of one method over the other, finally then, it was made with regression equations the corrections of the moisture results obtained from the different methodologies in relation to the ISO reference method.