1Department of Food Science and Technology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004
2Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana-141 004
*Corresponding author: savitasharmans@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 24 July, 2014.
Wheat contaminated with aflatoxin was subjected to various treatments such as dry heating, steaming, roasting, microwave heating and extrusion cooking. All the treatments showed significant reduction in aflatoxin content. The dry heating and steaming treatments were found to be at par in reducing aflatoxin content in contaminated wheat (42 and 38%, respectively). Sand roasting showed 51.4 per cent mean reduction in aflatoxin content with maximum reduction (55 percent) at 160°C. Microwave heating carried out for 6 min resulted in 54 per cent reduction while extrusion was found to be the most effective treatment as it resulted in 74.55 per cent reduction at 170°C with 20 per cent moisture content by maintaining 300 rpm screw speed. A positive correlation was observed in all the treatments and reduction of aflatoxins.
Aflatoxin, Dry heating, Extrusion cooking, Microwave heating, Wheat
