Microbiological evaluation of malted wheat, chickpea, and weaning food based on them.

The changes in the microbial load during steeping, germination, drying, kilning, and debranning of wheat and chickpea were studied, and the microflora of a weaning food formulation based on 48-hours germinated wheat and 24-hours germinated chickpea was also assayed. Total bacterial count (TBC) of control wheat and chickpea were 5 x 10(4)/g and 110 x 10(4)/g, respectively. The microbial load increased 9000-fold in wheat on 48-hours germination of wheat and 870-fold on 24-hours of germination of chickpea. The microbial counts decreased substantially on drying, kilning, and debranning, and the TBC of wheat and chickpea malt flours were 3 x 10(4)/g and 9 x 10(4)/g, respectively. Some of the spoilage microflora of health significance, viz. coliforms, E. coli, Streptococci, Staphylococci, yeast, and mould were assayed in raw materials and in the weaning foods based on malting (MWF), popping (PWF), and roller drying (RDF) of wheat and chickpea. The levels of these spoilage microflora were considerably high in raw materials and also in uncooked weaning foods, the load being high in MWF, moderate in PWF and low in RDF. Cooking the weaning foods slurry for 5 minutes at about 95 degrees C reduced the TBC and other spoilage microflora to safe limits, and counts were well within the prescribed values for the cereal-based weaning foods.