Cereal Chem 49:346 - 353.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Microbial Reduction in Stored and Dry-Milled Corn Infected with Southern Corn Leaf Blight.

C. Vojnovich, R. A. Anderson, and J. J. Ellis. Copyright 1972 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Much of the 1970 corn crop was damaged by Helminthosporium maydis, the fungus causing southern corn leaf blight. For many uses of corn, particularly in dry-milling, low bacterial and fungal counts are essential. High microbial populations, including H. maydis, can be materially reduced or eliminated by certain treatments applied to corn before milling. Blight-infected corn with an initial microbial count of 1,700,000 bacteria and 110,000 fungi per g. was treated by dipping in a hot solution of a sanitizing agent, by indirect steaming, and by direct steaming. Any of the three treatments reduced the microbial count of dry-milled fractions to about 5,000 per g. or lower. Storage of blight-infected corn at moderate temperatures destroyed H. maydis and reduced the total microbial count to levels low enough to meet all microbiological specifications set for food products.