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Flour Made from Damaged Grain

Flour is sometimes made from grain which contains fungous growths, such as smuts, rusts and ergot. These fungous growths affect the grain and cause it to deteriorate. When flour is milled from grain thus affected, it will be inferior in quality. The grain may sometimes be affected by other moulds and bacteria which will be ground into the flour, and if the flour should be stored in a damp atmosphere these destructive organisms will grow and deteriorate the flour. The wheat berry may sometimes be affected by small insects such as weevils, beetles, flour moths, mites and flour worms, which will destroy some of the constituents of the wheat, thus making it unfit for flouring purposes.

Grain may also be damaged by sprouting. When wheat begins to sprout a diastase is formed which dissolves some of the starch granules converting them into sugar which will produce bread of a soft and sticky nature. Adulteration of Flour. There have been times when there was a scarcity of wheat and an abundance of other cereals, such as corn and rye. The adulteration of wheat flour with other cereals may be detected by placing a small quantity of the flour under a microscope and observing the starch granules.