Cereal Chem 67:548-550   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Sieving Effects on Breakage Susceptibility Measurements.

F. L. Herum, N. D. Schmidt, and E. L. McCoy. Copyright 1990 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effect of sieving of corn (maize) on the assessment of breakage susceptibility with two breakage testers was examined. Five corn samples of known diverse breakage susceptibilities were subjected to breakage testing in both the Wisconsin and Stein CK-2M instruments. The resulting samples were then sieved with differeing numbers of sieving cycles. The results were fit to a mathematical expression describing the sieving process. Seiving action generated further breakage at a rate somewhat proportional to the breakage susceptibility of the samples. The model yielded estimates for the breakage of the sample before sieving and gave the sieving breakage rate. The appropriate number of sieving cycles to determine the initial breakage of the samples varied with both sample and instrument. The results of this study demonstrate that the number of sieving cycles should not be chosen arbitrarily and should be examined at the outset of any breakage testing procedure.