Factors affecting grain quality: A review

Cereal grains play an important role in meeting the nutrient needs of the human population. The quality of cereal products is determined by a variety of characteristics which may be assigned different significance depending on the desired end use or type of product. Grain quality is defined by several factors such as physical (moisture content, bulk density, kernel size, kernel hardness, vitreousness, kernel density and damaged kernels), sanitary (fungal infection, mycotoxins, insects and mites and their fragments, foreign material, odour and dust) and intrinsic factors (milling yield, oil content, protein content, starch content and viability).