About cereal and pulses

1. FOOD MICROBIOLOGY
TO PREPARE A CHECKLIST TO DETECT SPOILAGE IN COMMON FOOD ITEMS
ACTIVITY 3
ASNA SHERIN
1U18FN004
III Bsc. Nutrition and dietetics

2. CEREALS & CEREAL PRODUCTS
 A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain, composed of
the endosperm, germ, and bran.
 Examples of cereal products include wheat, rye, and oat flours and semolina,
doughs, breads, breakfast cereals, PASTA.
 Cereals are staples and are consumed in large quantities by majority of population
in the world.
 Cereals are easy to store because of low moisture content, easy to handle and
providing variety to the diet.
 The principle cereal grains grown in India are wheat, rice, corn, sorghum and
barley.

3. SPOILAGE IN CEREALS
 The major factors involved in the spoilage of cereals:
moisture levels, physical damage, and temperature.
 High‐moisture cereal grains, refrigerated dough,
breads, soft PASTA, and pastries are susceptible to
microbial spoilage.
 Cereal grains and cereal products normally contain
several genera of bacteria, molds, and yeasts.
 Bacteria can also cause spoilage of cereals, but
yeasts cause few spoilage problems.

4. PASTA- INTRODUCTION
Pasta, a type of starchy noodle or dumpling
food or dish typically made from grain flour,
commonly wheat, mixed into a paste or dough,
usually with water or eggs, and formed or cut
into sheets or other shapes.
Is PASTA Healthy or Unhealthy?
 Some types of PASTA are refined during
processing, stripping the wheat kernel of
the bran and germ, removing many of the
nutrients.
 Sometimes refined PASTA is enriched,
meaning it has some nutrients, such as B
vitamin and iron, added back in.

5. Can pasta go bad?
*That depends on the state of the product prior to storage.
Dry, sealed packs of pasta have an extremely long shelf life. Since
dried pasta has zero moisture content, the risk of bacterial or mould
growth is minimal. Hence, it will keep fresh for a while.
*On the other hand, cooked pasta has a shorter shelf life.
As mentioned above, cooked and uncooked pasta have radically
different storage lives and it all boils down to moisture content.
*Since cooked pasta is boiled and drenched in hot water, there is a
good chance that it will go bad within days. This goes especially if
the product has been stored improperly. Exposure to warm
temperatures could cause the pasta to spoil quickly.
*Dry pasta has a long shelf life but it’s not resistant to spoilage either.
It will go bad at some point although this will take a while.
How To Store Dry pasta?
*It’s important to store cooked and uncooked pasta properly to
extend the products’ shelf life. You can start by reading the label for
storage instructions
SPOILAGE IN
PASTA

6. SIGNS THAT PASTA HAS GONE
BAD
 How do you know if the dry pasta you’ve kept in storage for
so long has gone bad?
 Look for the following:
 Insects in the package
 Mould
 Off odour
 If you find any worms in the pasta, make sure you check the
whole cabinet and get rid of all of them. Even if there are no
obvious signs of spoilage, dry pasta that’s been stored for too
long will lose its original flavour. The texture, once cooked,
will be a bit different too.