[4-1600-A] Postharvest/Food Technology and Process Engineering (3)

[4-1600-A-03] Assessment of the Physical Characteristics of Maize (Zea mays) stored in different Positions within the Metallic Silos

*BABATOPE ALBERT ALABADAN¹, CALLISTUS A. OKOLO² (1. Federal University, Oye Ekiti (Ikole Ekiti Campus)(Nigeria), 2. Federal University of Technology, Minna(Nigeria))

Keywords:Maize, Storage, Metallic silos, Physical, Characteristics

The assessment of the moisture content (MC), hectoliter weight (HW), insect damage (ID), broken grains (BG), mould infestation (MI), viability/germinability (VG) and foreign matters (FM) of maize in different positions in the metallic silos during eight months storage was presented in this study. Seven and two positions in the maize bulk were investigated in the 250 MT and 1 MT silos respectively. The initial values obtained were compared with the values obtained during storage using statistical packages. The levels of significance for the variables are MC, 10.0±0.57%; HW, 72.9±0.10%; ID, 0.29±0.03%; BG, 0.55±0.01%; MI, 0.00±0.02%; VG, 100±0.00% and FM, 0.80±0.60% in respect to positions of the grains in the bulk. Variables were all significant (<0.05) except MC, HW and FM irrespective of the size of the metallic silos. The mean deviations of the variables from the control decreased for MC, HW, BG, VG and FM while ID and MI increased with storage period. The physical characteristics of maize were not influenced by the size of silo. The 1MT silo silo performed better in VG while bigger silo efficiency depends on the position of the grains in the bulk.