Mycotoxins in cereal grain Part VII. A simple method to assay mycotoxin potential of cereal grain and cereal products

A simple test to assay mycotoxin potential of cereal grain and products was elaborated. In cereal grain samples during 1977 and 1981 formation of ochratoxin A, citrinin and zearalenone was observed respectively in 40%, 7 % and 31 % of cereals samples. Aflatoxin and sterigmatocystin were not formed in any sample of cereal grain. Citrinin and penicillic acid were found as mycotoxins accompanying ochratoxin A.     

Mycotoxins in cereal grain. Part VII. A simple method to assay mycotoxin potential of cereal grain and cereal products

A simple test to assay mycotoxin potential of cereal grain and products was elaborated. In cereal grain samples during 1977 and 1981 formation of ochratoxin A, citrinin and zearalenone was observed respectively in 40%, 7% and 31% of cereals samples. Aflatoxin and sterigmatocystin were not formed in any sample of cereal grain. Citrinin and penicillic acid were found as mycotoxins accompanying ochratoxin A.     

Price transmission analysis using threshold models: an application to local rice markets in Benin and Mali

In most African countries, spatial dispersion of production and consumption often results in high transaction costs that prevent farmers from accessing markets and causes asymmetry in price transmission. The objective of this study was to provide the baseline information on local rice price transmission between paired producer and consumer markets in Benin and Mali. To achieve this, we used Enders and Siklos’s threshold models on monthly price series from 2000 to 2010 to examine the nature of price transmission between selected markets in the surplus zones and the nearest important consumption markets. The results for Benin indicated that price transmission between markets in the surplus zone and the consumption markets was asymmetric, probably because of the prevalence of high transaction costs. These results showed that increases in price in the surplus-zone market were more quickly transmitted to the consumer market than decreases in price. Conversely, the results for Mali indicated symmetric price transmission between the market in the surplus zone and the consumer market, suggesting the prevalence of lower transaction costs. These results highlight the need for policies aiming to lower transaction costs observed in selected local rice markets in Benin. Specific policies, such as investment in public infrastructure, e.g. roads, could promote the vertical integration of local rice production with marketing. This would be crucial to achieving rice farmers’ food security and hence their wellbeing.     

Price stabilization, international trade and national cereal stocks: world price shocks and policy response in South Asia

The sharp rise in international cereal prices in 2007 and 2008 had a profound impact on food security at national levels for net importing countries, sharply raising the cost of imports. Domestic trade policies and government market interventions in a set of South Asian countries have been critical, however, in determining the effects of the international price shocks on domestic markets. While these price shocks are a sober reminder that reliance on international markets will not guarantee price stability, it is important that governments do not over-react to recent events and adopt policies that ultimately result in large costs in terms of slower economic growth and less poverty reduction. Instead, national policies should involve some combination of (1) national stocks to prevent very large price increases, (2) reliance on international trade to limit the need for government interventions in most years, (3) promotion of domestic production through investments in irrigation, research and extension that is economically efficient when evaluated at medium-term border prices, and (4) targeted (ideally cash-based) safety net programs to address the food security needs of poor households. The appropriate design and implementation of these broad food policy guidelines will necessarily vary according to individual country conditions; the need to avoid government interventions that ultimately have very high costs is universal.

Associations between the general condition of culled dairy cows and selling price at Ontario auction markets

Dairy cows are culled from the herd for a variety of reasons, the most common being fertility problems, low milk production, or udder problems. Disease and injury can contribute to the decision to cull either directly, or indirectly, by causing fertility or production problems, leading to culling. Disease or injury may also affect the cow's ability to handle the stress of transportation and may increase the risk for reduced welfare. The purpose of this study was to determine the general condition of culled dairy cows sold at Ontario auction markets, to quantify the frequency of culled cows in poor condition sold at these auctions, and to determine how this relates to the sale price of the cow. Data were collected on 4,460 culled dairy cows, sold at 3 Ontario auction markets, over a continuous 16-wk study period. Observers assessed the general condition of dairy cows entering the sales ring by recording each individual cow's hock injury score, body condition score (BCS), gait score, and tail score, in accordance with 2017 Canadian proAction Animal Care guidelines. Each cow's body weight, breed, and sale price were also recorded. Results showed that 27.2% of culled cows scored had unacceptable hock injuries, 40.5% had a BCS ≤2, 72.7% had an abnormal gait, and 12.5% had docked tails. Culled cows with a BCS ≤2 sold for $0.20 less/kg compared with those with a BCS >2, which equated to an overall average loss of $117 per cow. Cows with an abnormal gait sold for $0.05 less/kg compared with culled cows with a normal gait, which equated to an overall average loss of $32.45 per cow. There was no difference in the sale price depending on hock injury score or the presence or absence of a full tail. The main issues identified in this study were the high prevalence of low body condition and abnormal gait, indicating that the welfare of these cows may be at risk. Additionally, cows with low BCS or abnormal gait sold for a lower price compared with cows that were in good condition, leading to reduced potential profit for the producer.     

Oxidative stability of snack and cereal products in relation to moisture sorption

A collection of snack and cereal products including peanuts, pork scratchings, a mixture of rolled oat and wheat from muesli and oatmeal have been characterized in terms of the relationship between storage humidity and stability against lipid oxidation. The products were stored above various saturated salt solutions in an atmosphere corresponding to ambient air. The development of free radicals, hexanal and water content was monitored during the storage. For oatmeal, muesli-mixture and pork scratchings an optimal humidity existed at which the oxidation rate constant was minimal. Furthermore, the humidity was concluded to be an important packaging parameter for oatmeal and muesli as a large difference between minimal and maximal oxidation rate constant was observed. The optimal humidity with respect to oxidative stability did not coincide with the BET-monolayer value. The radical content was very dependent of the relative humidity as an increased humidity resulted in decreased radical content.     

Utilization of milk proteins and cereal starches to obtain co-extrudates

Extrusion of the cereal mixtures with 25% addition of milk proteins induced several changes in the chemical and physico-chemical properties of starch. Coefficient of expansion was close to the coefficient of natural cereal flours, but the extrudates were characterized by higher water absorption. Starch was only slightly dextrinized, but it contained more nitrogen compounds and mineral salts, and less free lipids. Solubility and swelling power of the extrudates did not change in a way characteristic for cereal starch and flours. Attention should be given to higher content of dietary fibre, pointing to the formation of the starch-lipids and the starch-protein complexes, less susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis used. Hence, it can be stated that the latter increase was apparent only. It can be said that a mixture of cereal starch and milk proteins can be used to modify quality of the extruded products of increased protein content. More attention should be devoted to biochemical characteristics of the protein added, as this largely determines quality of the extruded starch-protein products.     

Vulnerability of smallholder rural households to food insecurity in Eastern Ethiopia

Although several empirical methodologies as to how best assess vulnerability to food insecurity have been proposed in the literature, none of these has evolved into a unanimously accepted approach. This article contributes to this literature by adapting the Vulnerability as Expected Poverty approach from poverty analysis methodology with the aim of scrutinizing factors determining household level vulnerability to food insecurity based on cross-section data collected from 277 randomly selected households in eastern Ethiopia. Vulnerability to food insecurity was strongly associated with several factors which included family size, size of cultivated landholding, soil fertility status of plots, access to irrigation, number of extension visits, use of fertilizer and improved seed. The probability that any given household??s food consumption expenditure would fall below a specified cut-off level has also been computed and vulnerable households identified. The total number of vulnerable households (111) was found to be greater than those who are currently food insecure (103). This implies that design and implementation of food security policies and strategies need to focus not only on those who are observed to be currently food insecure, but also on setting up social protection mechanisms to help prevent households from falling more deeply into food insecurity in the future.     

Dispersibility of cereal proteins in urea solutions

Protein estimations by the biuret method were highly correlated with Kjeldahl determinations for 87 samples of the seven major cereal grains. The extent of binding of acid orange 12 in a phosphate buffer at pH 1·7 was correlated with the protein content but was affected by non-specific binding which varied with the tested cereals. Extraction with 3M-urea at 4° yielded an average of 67·9% protein from wheat, 67·3% from wheat flour, 66·2% from rye, 71·2% from oats, 46·7% from barley, 32·1% from rice, 22·3% from corn, and 24·6% from sorghum. Differences in dispersible proteins seem to be affected by the disaggregating and hydrogen-bond-disrupting effect of urea, and seem to be related to amino-acid composition and functional properties of cereal proteins. The urea-dispersible protein fraction in wheat flour was higher than in whole wheat.     

In-vitro availability of starch in cereal products

The in-vitro availability of starch in Heudebert breads and Lu biscuits was assessed. Starch digestibility increased in the order semi-sweet biscuits, muesli, wholemeal breads, white breads, French toast, extruded crispbread. The results confirm that manufacturing conditions play a determinant role in starch availability in vitro.     

Prevalence of goiter in children 6 to 12 years of age in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Iodine-deficiency disorders are a major public health problem in Ethiopia. In conjunction with implementing control programs, baseline information needs to be established. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution and degree of severity of iodine-deficiency disorders in terms of goiter prevalence, urinary iodine excretion (UIE) levels, and proportion of households with iodated salt in Ethiopia. METHODS: A nationwide, community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from February to May 2005 among 10,965 children aged 6 to 12 years. A multistage, proportional-to-population-size sampling method was used. Goiters were classified by the method recommended by the World Health Organization/UNICEF/International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (WHO/UNICEF/ICCIDD), in which the thyroid gland is graded as 0 (normal), 1 (palpable goiter), or 2 (visible goiter); urinary iodine was determined by the wet digestion method; and salt samples were analyzed by a rapid test kit. RESULTS: The national total goiter weighted prevalence rate among children aged 6 to 12 years was 39.9% (95% confidence interval, 38.6% to 41.2%), representing more than 4 million children. The median UIE was 2.45 microg/ dL; 45.8% of children had UIE values of 2 microg/dL or less, and 22.8% had UIE values of 2.01 to 5.0 pg/dL. Only 4.2% of the households had iodated salt. CONCLUSIONS: According to the WHO/UNICEF/ ICCIDD classification, both goiter prevalence and UIE levels indicate that the whole country appears to be severely affected by iodine deficiency. Furthermore, the virtual absence of iodated salt in the households shows that currently there is no salt iodization program in the country. Dietary sources of iodine in Ethiopia are not dependable, and hence a sustainable universal salt iodization program needs to be implemented without delay.     

五大因素推动近期国内油脂市场价格上涨

<正> 今年春节后,国内油脂市场价格加速上涨,短短的一个月时间,三个主要品种的价格涨幅均超过20个百分点。作为我国最大的粮食生产和进出口企业,中粮集团分析人士指出,油脂均创出历史新高,原因可归纳为几方面因素:一是年初雪灾引发了此轮油脂上涨行情。1月份,南方大部分地区遭遇了罕     

Producer assessment of dairy extension programming in Kentucky

To assess the dairy production issues extension programming should be addressing, a survey was distributed to all licensed milk producers in Kentucky (n = 1,074). A total of 236 surveys were returned; 7 were omitted due to incompletion, leaving 229 for subsequent analyses (21% response rate). Mean herd size was 83.0 ± 101.8 cows with a projected increase to 102.1 ± 114.4 cows by 2013. Mean producer age was 50.9 ± 12.9 with a range of 22 to 82. Mean milk production (kg/cow per day) was 23.9 ± 5.4 with a range of 6.8 to 38.6 kg. Mean somatic cell counts (SCC) were 304,824 ± 123,580 with a range of 75,000 to 750,000 cells/mL. When asked about meeting attendance frequency, 25% of producers indicated they attended meetings annually, whereas 29% attended twice yearly, 13% quarterly, 3% monthly, 2% at least twice monthly, and 28% indicated they never attended meetings. Surveyed producers were asked to assess what level of importance should be placed on a predetermined list of management topics. Mean response to each topic was calculated after assigning the following numeric values to producer response categories: not important: 1, important: 3, and very important: 5. Producers indicated mastitis and milk quality was the most important management topic with a response of 4.35 ± 1.05, followed by animal well-being (4.05 ± 1.14), disease prevention and vaccinations (4.01 ± 1.06), cow comfort (3.97 ± 1.09), disease treatment (3.95 ± 1.10), and lameness and hoof health (3.95 ± 1.16). Producers were asked to identify their preferred information delivery method. The most effective delivery methods were printed farm magazines (81.0%), agricultural newspapers (77.4%), printed newsletters from county agricultural agents (75.7%), printed newsletters from university extension (65.0%), and local or regional meetings (55.8%). The least effective delivery methods were university website (11.9%), indirect access through allied industry consultants (11.5%), webinars (2.7%), podcasts (0.4%), and blogs (0.4%). These results provide invaluable insight for future dairy-related Cooperative Extension Service programming efforts.     

Mycotoxins in cereal grain Part VOL Microbiological evaluation of cereal grain quality,connected with mycotoxins occurrence

Four classes of microbiological quality of cereal grain are proposed. For classification the frequency of kernels contamination with Penicillia, Aspergilli and Phycomycetes is considered as essential. Lots contaminated with mycotoxins (ochratoxins) were usually of IIIrd and IVth class of quality.     

Mycotoxin contamination of cereal grain commodities in relation to climate in North West Europe

This study aimed to investigate mycotoxin contamination of cereal grain commodities for feed and food production in North Western Europe during the last two decades, including trends over time and co-occurrence between toxins, and to assess possible effects of climate on the presence of mycotoxins. For these aims, analytical results related to mycotoxin contamination of cereal grain commodities, collected in the course of national monitoring programmes in Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands during a 20-year period, were gathered. Historical observational weather data, including daily relative humidity, rainfall and temperature, were obtained from each of these four countries. In total 6382 records, referring to individual sample results for mycotoxin concentrations (one or more toxins) in cereal grains were available. Most records referred to wheat, barley, maize and oats. The most frequently analysed mycotoxins were deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin and zearalenone. Deoxynivalenol had the highest overall incidence of 46%, and was mainly found in wheat, maize and oats. Mycotoxins that showed co-occurrence were: deoxynivalenol and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol in oats; deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in maize and wheat; and T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin in oats. The presence of both deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in wheat increased with higher temperatures, relative humidity and rainfall during cultivation, but the presence of nivalenol was negatively associated with most of these climatic factors. The same holds for both nivalenol and deoxynivalenol in oats. This implies that climatic conditions that are conducive for one toxin may have a decreasing effect on the other. The presence of HT-2 toxin in oats showed a slight decreasing trends over time, but significant trends for other toxins showed an increasing presence during the last two decades. It is therefore useful to continue monitoring of mycotoxins. Obtained results can be used for development of predictive models for presence of mycotoxins in cereal grains.     

Analysis of free amino acids in cereal products

Free amino acids were extracted from cereal products using 50% ethanol to prevent solubilization of polysaccharides and other viscous polymers and to avoid starch gelatinization. The extracts were analyzed by GC after ion-exchange solid phase extraction and chloroformate derivatization using Ez-Faast technology (Phenomenex). Free amino acids in cereal products could be analyzed within 1 h of extraction and determination, with good separation between peaks and repeatable retention times. Relative correction factor for each amino acid was established. The matrix did not affect the results and the method was repeatable for most of the amino acids (coefficient of variation was in the order of 10%). Different fractions and products of wheat, rye, oats and barely were analyzed. The bran contained more free amino acids than did the other analysed fractions of cereals. Fermentation seemed to consume free asparagine and aspartic acid and to use or release other amino acids.     

Studies in pyrazines of some roasted cereal flours

Summary Roasted cereal flours of wheat, jowar, and ragi in combination with sugar, jaggery, or salt are used as emergency rations by the masses in India. A number of pyrazines were isolated and characterized by TLC, and UV and IR spectrophotometry. With the help of Dragendorff's reagent these could be detected and estimated down to 2.5 g and 5 g, respectively. In roasted wheat flour 2-methoxy-3methyl-, 2,3-dimethyl-, and 2-ethyl-3-methyl-pyrazines were predominant. In roasted jowar flour 2,3-dimethyl-, 2-ethoxy-3-isopropyl-, and 2-ethyl-5-methyl-pyrazine were maximum; whereas in roasted ragi flour pyrazine and 2-methylthio-3-isopropylpyrazine had the major contribution. The presence of alkylpyrazines in roasted flours could be a major factor contributing towards their aroma.

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Studien über Pyrazine in einigen gerösteten Getreidemehlen

Zusammenfassung Geröstete Getreidemehle aus Weizen, Jowar und Ragi in Kombination mit Zucker, Jaggery oder Salz werden als Notverpflegung des indischen Volkes gebraucht. Eine Zahl von Pyrazinen wurden durch TLC, UV- und IR-Spektrophotometrie isoliert und charakterisiert. Mit Hilfe des Dragendorffreagenses konnten diese nachgewiesen und bis herunter zu 2,5 bzw. 5 gg erfaßt werden. Im gerösteten Weizenmehl waren 2-Methoxy-3-methyl-, 2,3-Dimethyl-und 2-Äthyl-3-methyl-Pyrazine vorherrschend. Im gerösteten Jowarmehl waren 2,3-Dimethyl-, 2-äthoxy-3-isopropyl- und 2-Äthyl-3-methyl-Pyrazine maximal, dagegen in geröstetem Ragimehl waren es Pyrazin und 2-Methylthio-3-isopropyl-Pyrazin. Die Gegenwart von Alkylpyrazinen in gerösteten Mehlen dürfte zu deren Aroma hauptsächlich beitragen.

     

离子色谱法测定谷物中磷化物残留量

样品中磷化物在稀硫酸作用下,产生磷化氢气体,蒸出并由酸性高锰酸钾溶液吸收氧化成磷酸,吸收液经饱和亚硫酸钠褪色后,由离子色谱法测定。结果,磷质量浓度(以PH3计)在0.02~4、4.0~100 mg/L范围内均具有良好的线性关系,样品中磷化物(以PH3计)的检出限(LOD)为0.005 mg/kg,定量限(LOQ)为0.017 mg/kg。样品中磷化物三个标准添加水平的回收率为82.0%~106.8%,相对标准偏差(RSD,n=6)在9.2%~10.3%之间。建立的离子色谱方法对6个加标样品的分析结果与国标方法没有显著差别。     

生猪采购结算的综合定价法及比较

对大规模生猪屠宰企业来讲,生猪采购成本约占生产成本的97％～98％,小规模屠宰企业由于其固定成本较低,生猪成本的比重会更高。严格控制生猪采购成本是生猪屠宰企业成本控制的关键环节。对于大部分依赖外购生猪的屠宰企业来说,由于生猪养殖户布局分散。实行公司化管理的养殖户较少,其提供的生猪数量具有不确定性,提供的生猪质量具有不稳定性,很难像采购其他工业品一样实施准确的计划控制。尽管有的龙头企业实行“公司加农户,契约加服务”的经营模式,但合同对农户的约束作用并不强,生猪质量参差不齐。受利益驱使,注水猪时有发生,这一方面降低了生猪屠宰企业的声誉和效益,同时也影响了消费者的身体健康。生猪采购是生猪屠宰企业品质和成本控制的第一环节,因此,确定合理的生猪结算方式,在收购环节掌控生猪质量,是生猪屠宰企业质量和成本控制的重要手段。