Effect of Water Activity and Storage Time on the Nutritional Quality and Microbial Stability of Maize
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70749/ijbr.v3i12.2707Keywords:
Water activity, Storage time, Maize (Zea mays L.), Nutritional quality, Microbial stabilityAbstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of water activity and storage time on the nutritional quality and microbial stability of maize grains. The research work was conducted in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, The University of Agriculture Peshawar during 2015. Maize grain sub-samples, each of 50 g were weighed into sterile baby food jars with micro porous caps and rehydrated to 0.85, 0.90 and 0.95aw levels by the addition of distilled water. Jars of the same aw levels were then enclosed in sealed plastic containers together with salt-water solution at the same aw to maintain uniform relative humidity inside the boxes. At 15 days interval, three samples of each aw level were randomly selected and analyzed for proximate composition, starch content, mineral contents and total fungal viable counts. Analysis of the data showed that both water activity and storage time significantly affected the proximate composition, starch, mineral content and total fungal count of the grains. The highest moisture content (30.0%) and starch (75.19%) were recorded at 0.95 aw and 0.85 aw on day 1 whereas their lowest amounts were noted after 60 days of storage in control sample and at 0.95aw, respectively. The average ash content was higher in control sample, which progressively decreased with increasing aw levels over storage period. The crude protein content and nitrogen free extract (NFE) were minimum (10.0 and 39.73%) at 0.95 aw on day 1 of the experiment, which gradually increased to 15.03% at 0.85aw and 67.49% in control sample, respectively after 60 days of storage. Crude fats and crude fibers significantly reduced with storage time whereas the effect of aw was not significant on them. All macro and micro elements including Na, K, Fe, Ca, Zn, Mg and Cu showed maximum values i.e. 604.30, 3468.90, 51.87, 423.09, 55.95, 1639.21 and 22.03 mg/kg at 0.95 aw on day 15 whereas the least amount of these elements i.e. 577.50, 3445.6, 33.65, 403.01, 34.69, 1618.26 and 6.09 mg/kg, respectively were found in control sample after 60 days of storage. The total fungal viable count showed an increasing trend with increasing aw levels over storage period. It was concluded that aw and storage time played key role in maintaining the quality of post-harvest stored grains. It was, therefore recommended that aw of the grains should be kept minimum for extending the storability and nutritional quality of cereal grains.
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