%0 Journal Article
%T Microwave Heating as an Alternative Quarantine Method for Disinfestation of Stored Food Grains
%A Ipsita Das
%A Girish Kumar
%A Narendra G. Shah
%J International Journal of Food Science
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/926468
%X Insects and pests constitute a major threat to food supplies all over the world. Some estimates put the loss of food grains because of infestation to about 40% of the world production. Contemporary disinfestation methods are chemical fumigation, ionizing radiation, controlled atmosphere, conventional hot air treatment, and dielectric heating, that is, radio frequency and microwave energy, and so forth. Though chemical fumigation is being used extensively in stored food grains, regulatory issues, insect resistance, and environmental concerns demand technically effective and environmentally sound quarantine methods. Recent studies have indicated that microwave treatment is a potential means of replacing other techniques because of selective heating, pollution free environment, equivalent or better quality retention, energy minimization, and so forth. The current paper reviews the recent advances in Microwave (MW) disinfestation of stored food products and its principle and experimental results from previous studies in order to establish the usefulness of this technology. 1. Importance of Disinfestation Agricultural commodities produced on the fields have to undergo a series of operations such as harvesting, threshing, winnowing, bagging, transportation, storage, and processing before they reach the consumer, and there are appreciable losses in crop output at all these stages. Various estimates have been made to assess the postharvest food grain losses. The losses are caused either by environmental factors such as temperature, moisture, and type of storage structure or by biological agents, namely, insects, rodents, birds, and fungi. The major losses during production, storage and marketing of food grain are being attributed to infestation by insect pests, microbiological contamination, and physiological changes. Insect infestations can occur just prior to harvest or during storage or in-transit in a variety of carriers. The occurrence and numbers of stored grain insect pests are directly related to geographical and climatic conditions [1]. Almost all species have remarkably high rates of multiplication and, within one season, may destroy 10¨C15% of the grain and contaminate the rest with undesirable odors and flavors. Insect pests also play a pivotal role in transportation of storage fungi [2]. Therefore, preventing economic losses caused by stored-product insects is important from the field to the consumer¡¯s table [3]. The losses during storage are classified as quantity losses and quality losses. Quantity losses occur when the grain is consumed by
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfs/2013/926468/