Physical and microbiological quality of maize stored in silos and warehouses in Ghana

Abstract

Maize samples from warehouses and silos of the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation from various locations in Ghana were assessed for their physical and microbiological qualities. All the samples had levels of moisture content, none exceeding 13.5%. Levels of extraneous matter were also very low with a maximum of 1.4%. Percentages of broken grains from silos ranged from 4.0 to 4.9% whilst that from the warehouses ranged from 0.8 to 11.1%. Most of the samples had low levels of insect damaged grains, the highest level of 9.4% being found in only one warehouse. On the other hand levels of discoloured grains were quite high for both silos and warehouses. Also samples from the warehouse were found to have higher levels of total blemished grains than those from the silos. However, because the initial qualities of grains stored were not known, it cannot be inferred that warehouse storage practices promote grain quality deterioration than what obtains in the silos. In general six six main types of fungi were found on the samples, four of these namely, Aspergillus flavus Link. Aspergillus ochraceus, Penicillium expansum and Fusarium species are known to cause discolouration of grains. None of the samples examined had more than 20% of the grains infected with the fungi isolated