Methods to decontaminate cereal grains with chlorine dioxide

摘要

Methods are provided which include steeping and/or spraying a harvested cereal grain, such as barley, wheat, rye, millet, corn (maize), rice, or oats, in or with an aqueous solution including an effective amount of chlorine dioxide to provide a treated cereal grain. The treated cereal grain obtained from chlorine-dioxide steeping and/or spraying generally has a reduced microorganism and/or toxin content, and may be subjected to additional malting processes.

主权项

1. A method comprising steeping a harvested cereal grain in an aqueous solution comprising an effective amount of chlorine dioxide, spraying the harvested cereal grain with water comprising an effective amount of chlorine dioxide during germination, or a combination thereof, to provide a treated cereal grain;
wherein: the harvested cereal grain has a first microorganism concentration, the treated cereal grain has a second microorganism concentration, the second microorganism concentration is reduced by at least about 50% to 99.999% compared to a third microorganism concentration of an untreated cereal grain, where the untreated cereal grain is harvested cereal grain steeped and germinated in water without chlorine dioxide under substantially similar conditions to the chlorine dioxide steeping and/or germination step; the treated cereal grain is germinated after the steeping step; and the effective amount of chlorine dioxide is about 1 ppm to about 50 ppm chlorine dioxide.