Effects of electron beam irradiation on the fungi inhibition during storage and processing quality of bulk wheat

Effects of the different doses of electron beam irradiation (EBR) on the inhibition of microbial colonies during wheat storage, as well as some main storing indicators and processing quality of wheat were inverstigated. The investigation result demonstrated that EBR could effectively inhibit the total number of microbial colonies in wheat (P＜0.01), the higher the dose, the less the colonies. Inhibitory effects of different doses of irradiation on mold were significant (P＜0.01). The sensory quality and basic nutritional componments of wheat irradiated with doses of 0-5.1 kGy did not change much. Dough rheological properties showed that, in addition to the settling time and the break-up time slightly increased with the increase of the dose, the evaluation value was negatively correlated with the degree of softening. Other changes of the indicators sucn as water absorption and formation time of flour dough were not very obvious. However, gluten index, α-amylase activity declined rapidly with the high-dose exposure. The falling number of wheat sample with 5.1 kGy-dose irradiation fell by 56.12% than that of the control. Taste score of steamed bread products also decreases with increase of the radiation dose.