Chapter 1 - Assessing and Managing Quality at all Stages of the Grain Chain

Abstract

Many familiar items in our lives are all derived from the cereal grains—both food and non-food products. The major cereal species are maize (corn), wheat and rice; others include barley, rye, triticale, oats and sorghum. The production of cereal grains is equivalent to 1 kg of grain per day for each person on earth. The route from their breeding, through production and processing to us, as consumers, is the grain chain. Quality control throughout this chain of events involves testing for grain and product quality, and using the results to manage ongoing quality attributes. These themes are expanded throughout this book.