Cereal Chem 68:390-395   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Removal of Sprouted Kernels from Hard Red Spring Wheat with a Specific Gravity Table.

R. Tkachuk, J. E. Dexter, and K. H. Tipples. Copyright 1991 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Commercially grown samples (27) of hard red spring wheat from the 1989 Western Canada harvest that had varying degrees of sprout damage were fractionated on a specific gravity table. Sprouted, shrunken, and broken kernels were highly concentrated in the least dense fractions. The remaining denser fractions exhibited improved appearance, higher test weight, and reduced alpha-amylase activity. The removal of sprouted, shrunken, and broken kernels in the lightest fractions resulted in improved milling performance for the remaining wheat. When six samples that had been downgraded to Canada Feed wheat because of sprout damage were fractionated, an average of 62% (range 42-81%) was recovered that met the visual requirements of No. 3 Canada Western Red Spring wheat. The wheat fractions promoted to the No. 3 grade exhibited improved processing quality consistent with the assigned grade. Specific gravity table fractionation of wheat has enormous potential for increasing the market value of low-grade wheat by segregating portions with improved processing quality.