Molds present in wholegrain flours used in gluten-free products

Abstract

The approach in the creation and production of gluten-free products implies the use of gluten-free mixtures containing wholegrain buckwheat, corn and rice flour. According to the nutritive characteristics, the wholegrain flour is a high quality product, due to its high vitamin, mineral, and dietary fibers content. However, the cereal grains are susceptible to the series of contamination during the ripening, harvesting, processing and storage. On a grain surface, beside the impurities, numerous colonies of microorganisms can be developed and consequently affect the safety of a grain and the final product. The aim of this work was to determine molds presence in buckwheat, corn and rice flour. The total number and determination of isolated genera and species of molds were subject of this research. All samples were contaminated by the molds. The total number of molds ranged between 10-3.7×104cfu/g for the rice and the buckwheat flour, respectively. From the analyzed samples, 12 genera were isolated. The highest number of mold species was isolated from the Aspergillus and Penicillium genera. The most common species was Aspergillus flavus. The results pointing out a necessity of the grain surface treatment, preceding the milling in wholegrain buckwheat, corn and rice flour production.