Cereal Chem 62:137-144   |  VIEW ARTICLE
Mold Growth and Carbon Dioxide Production During Storage of High-Moisture Corn.

A. Fernandez, R. Stroshine, and J. Tuite. Copyright 1985 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Freshly harvested and preserved samples of combine-harvested corn, approximately 22 and 19% m.c. (moisture content, wet basis), were stored in the laboratory at 26 C. Carbon dioxide (CO2) production, fungal propagules, kernel infection, visible molds, and kernel germination were measured. CO2 production of freshly harvested corn at 22% m.c. was within 2% of that predicted from Saul and Steele's equations, and values for fresh corn at 19% m.c. varied from predicted values by 5-30%. Other indices correlated with CO2 production included number of Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. propagules (r = 0.92), percent kernels infected with Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. (r = 0.85), and germination decrease (r = 0.84). Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. were the prevalent storage molds. When 0.5% dry matter loss occurred, there were approximately 9 x 10(5) propagules per gram in the 22% m.c. sample and 5 x 10(6) propagules per gram in the 19% m.c. sample. Methods used to preserve samples for subsequent testing included storage at 3 C, -10 C, and -29 C, and drying and rewetting. Freezing of 22% moisture corn at -10 C gave the best agreement with tests on freshly harvested corn. Samples stored moist at 3 C for 70 days or -29 C for 23 days produced substantially more CO2 than freshly harvested corn. The CO2 evolution was best described by a second order polynomial in time.