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Hardness as a modification index for malting red and white sorghum (kaffir) grains
Author(s) -
Uvere Peter O,
Ngoddy Patrick O,
Nwankwo Chibuzo S
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.6331
Subject(s) - sorghum , food science , chemistry , sorghum bicolor , horticulture , nitrogen , agronomy , biology , organic chemistry
BACKGROUND This study investigated changes in the resistance to fracture of malting red and white sorghum grains using a hardness tester as another method for monitoring grain modification . RESULTS Grain hardness decreased progressively from 134.35 N and 137.29 N in malting red and white sorghums and levelled off after 120 h at 76.98 N and 69.14 N. In the red grain malts traditionally used for burukutu production, moisture content ( r = −0.983), dhurrinase activity ( r = −0.981), malting loss ( r = −0.981), free amino nitrogen ( r = −0.909) and cold wate r extract ( r = −0.908) were better indicators of grain hardness than root length ( r = −0.89). In the white sorghum malts, malting loss ( r = −0.988), dhurrinase activity ( r = −0.954) and diastatic activity ( r = −0.936) were better indicators of grain modification than root length ( r = −0.916). The soluble nitrogen ratio at the end of malting was lower in the red (0.049) compared with the white (0.0548) . CONCLUSION Grain hardness using a hand‐held tester is a simple, fast and good index of modification of malting red and white sorghum grains. Oven‐dried red and white sorghum malts could be considered to be well modified at hardness values/indices below 77 N/0.5730 and 72 N/0.5036, respectively. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry