Grain Processing – Seed To Food

Food, one of the basic needs for human comprising of various categories like grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, is an important part of daily diet and supplies all the macro and micronutrients for the growth and survival if taken in a balanced way.

- Prof. B. M. Devani, Prof. B. L. Jani and Dr. S. P. Cholera

Grains, commonly referred to as cereals (maize, wheat, millet, rice, millets), pulses (beans, peas, cowpeas), oilseeds (soybean, sunflower, linseed) are the edible seeds of specific grasses belonging to the Poaceae family with or without outer layer while the grains like amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa are known as pseudo-cereal grains as they do not belong to the same family but nutritionally they are at par or superior to the grains.

GRAIN: A NUTRL-RICH TREASURE

Nature has designed the grains in a way that balanced diet along with fruits and vegetables and supply the required nutrients to our body. Cereals are dominant in low cost energy source carbohydrates while pulses are predominant in protein and oilseeds are cherished with lipids which are important macro-nutrients of human diets.

WHAT IS THE GRAIN PROCESSING?

Processing of agricultural commodity expressly grains is an important practice for their further use as raw or ingredient. Grains undergo various post-harvest pretreatments and processing steps to make them available for final consumption. The post-harvest processing of grains falls in different phases. In the primary processing the grains are cleaned, graded, sorted, dehusked/dehulled, milled, and converted into edible form. The secondary processing uses the primary processed grains using various steps to convert it into value added edible food products.