Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is used mainly as human food in the form of flour. Germination may be useful to improve the quality of protein, and possibly other nutrients in wheat. Since the stability of flours produced from germinated grains is little known, this work investigated the effect of wheat germination on some nutritional characteristics and storage stability of whole wheat flour from grain germinated for 48 (WFGW48), 72 (WFGW72), and 96 hours (WFGW96). The amino acid profiles of the WFGWs were considered good when compared with the control whole flour and the FAO standard for pre-school-aged children (2-5y). Only lysine (first limiting amino acid) and threonine were lower in the WFGWs than in the reported standard. Chemical score (about 56-57) and protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (about 54-58) were higher in the WFGWs than in the control whole flour (48 and 42, respectively). Upon storage, the pH was observed to decrease and water-soluble acidity to increase as a function of germination time. WFGWs were stable up to 4 months of storage, except for WFGW96, which showed high water-soluble acidity probably due to hydrolitic rancidity. Hexanal, a measure of oxidative deterioration, was found only in the control whole flour; it was not detected in the WFGWs, indicating a good oxidative stability during 6 months of storage. On the basis of such results, germination improved both nutritionally and the storage stability of wheat.
Whole wheat flour; germination; nutrition; storage
