Cereal Chem 57:346 - 351.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Mycotoxin and Odor Formation in Moist Cereal Grain During Granary Storage.

D. Abramson, R. N. Sinha, and J. T. Mills. Copyright 1980 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Half-bushel parcels of barley, wheat, and oats at 21% moisture content were placed inside bulk stored oats in a farm granary for 20 weeks during summer and autumn in Manitoba to study quality changes. Temperature, moisture, O2 and CO2 levels, microfloral incidence and abundance, seed germination, free fatty acids, aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, and G2), zearalenone, citrinin, penicillic acid, ochratoxin A, sterigmatocystin, and fungal volatiles were monitored during storage. By four weeks, ochratoxin A had formed at detectable levels in barley and wheat but not in oats; barley contained over five times more ochratoxin A than did wheat after 20 weeks. Strains of Penicillium verrucosum var. cyclopium were associated with ochratoxin A production. No other mycotoxins were detected. The fungal volatiles increased 10-fold to 15-fold by seven weeks and declined to control levels by 16 weeks. Of the three known fungal odors tentatively identified, amounts of 1-octanol were greater than those of 3-methyl-1-butanol and 3-octanone. Of the three grains, barley showed the least heating, moisture increase, O2 decrease, CO2 increase, fat acidity value increase, and germination loss.