Effect of sprouting on the quality and composition of canola seed and oil

Sprouting has been considered as a damage factor in grading canola. This project deals with the evaluation of the effect of sprouting on the quality and composition of canola seed and oil. Sprouted seeds had lower oil content than nonsprouted seeds as determined by exhaustive petroleum ether extraction. The difference, although statistically significant, was small, less than 0.1% oil at the maximum level of sprouting allowed in topgrade canola. There were no differences in chlorophyll contents or moisture contents between sound and sprouted seeds. Sprouted seeds had significantly higher levels of FFA and crude protein than sound seeds. Oxidation parameters (diene and aldehyde) were higher in oils from sound seeds than oils from sprouted seeds, but there was no statistically significant difference in PV. Sprouted seeds had higher levels of tocopherols and sucrose, but lower levels of raffinose, stachyose, and total sugars than sound seeds. There was no difference in overall FA composition of the oil between sound and sprouted seeds. The second extraction of the Federation of Oils Seeds and Fat Associations (FOSFA) extraction method, which allowed the extraction of more polar lipids, contained significantly more saturated FA. However, this was not significant in the overall FA composition of the oils because this fraction counted for about 2% of the total lipid content. The presence of sprouted seed had an effect on results for oil and crude protein determined by NIR as compared with results by FOSFA extraction, or pulsed NMR for oil and Dumas combustion for crude protein. Addition of sprouted seed samples to the NIR, calibration set overcame this problem. These results suggested that sprouting did not have a highly damaging effect on the quality and composition of canola seed and oil when less than 10% of the seeds in a sample were sprouting.