World Grain - July 2015 - 74

TECHNICAL PROFILE

Grain quality

through the
looking glass
A

part from the total solar eclipse on March 20, there
was little to distract from a packed program of interesting topics at this year's Grain Network meeting
in Milan, Italy. In keeping with the location, a number of
experts from the Italian grain industry looked at the work
going on to ensure quality durum wheat for pasta production through routine analysis at grain receival and in grain
EUHHGLQJSURJUDPV3UR¿FLHQF\WHVWLQJGLJLWDOLPDJLQJDVsessment of grain quality and developments in NIR analysis
provided further perspectives on the potential for improved
global grain production.
PROTECTING PASTA QUALITY
Boiling water and a pinch of salt - pasta may be easy to
cook, but behind the scenes industry professionals need to
maintain a positive relationship between the quality of durum
wheat and consumers' demands for quality pasta.
One particularly important quality parameter is the protein
content of durum wheat. It must be at least 12%, but with
modern farming under pressure this cannot be taken for
granted. Laura Gazza, Council for Agricultural Research and
Economics - Research Unit for Cereal Quality, Italy, said: "In
durum wheat production in Italy, protein content is decreasing
year by year and this is a very big problem."
The cereal quality network run by the council helps to monitor the situation by sharing data in real time and by promoting
appropriate agricultural practices.
"We try to make a connection between the grain quality data
that we obtain by the NIR Infratec network and the agronomic
practices throughout Italy," she said.
Italy is the world's second largest producer of durum wheat,
The Infratec NOVA is Foss' latest development in NIR imaging. Photo
courtesy of FOSS.
74

by Richard Mills

Grain Network attendees get
updates on the latest developments
in NIR analysis
producing 4 million tonnes in 2014 against the 6.5 million
tonnes produced by Canada in the same year.
Carla Corticelli, director of the Unione Seminativi national
grain organization, outlined the quality traits that any pasta
producer wants from the grain. These include elasticity, color
and texture and the aforementioned protein content. Routine
analytical tools like NIR instruments are important for speed
and convenience.
"They must give rapid, highly accurate results, under operating conditions that are not always easy. These tools are
very important for breeding, not only for raw material, but
because they allow you to use small quantities material, which
for breeding is very important," she said.
CENTURY OF WHEAT RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT
The importance of breeding programs was explained by
Marilena Paolini, Syngenta, Italy. Syngenta has been working
with wheat breeding for over a century in Italy, the past 30 years
of which has involved NIR.
"For us it is important to do a lot of analysis in a very short
time," said Paolini.
NIR analysis helps to make it affordable by providing
high throughput in the Syngenta laboratory where around
200 ground and 500 unground grain samples are often
July 2015 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - July 2015

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