Signs of the Times

“We continue to utilize both near NIR technology and traditional lab methods for chemical analysis,” McKinney says. “We have some instrumentation for measuring physical characteristics, but a lot of the physical evaluation we do requires a trained eye and subjective measurement. Moving toward less subjective evaluations of grain is one of our goals.”

The ICIA works for two primary types of clients: companies that buy and sell grains to assure that contract specs for certain characteristics are met or to provide data to help develop lists of approved varieties for farmers to grow; and seed companies that develop and produce seeds with traits that processors want. Clients include small mom and pop businesses to some of the largest food and food ingredient companies in the world.

Physical and Chemical Tests

The ICIA combines tests for physical characteristics and chemical composition of corn, soybeans and other crops, and also tries to mimic the industrial process in the laboratory; for e.g. testing corn kernel to see how it will process into a tortilla chip.

The ICIA performs a laboratory procedure to evaluate how well the outside pericarp (the thin outer layer of the corn kernel) comes off during the alkaline (lime) cooking process. The pericarp of some corn hybrids will be completely and rapidly dissolved and rinsed away. Other hybrids may show little effect.

“A tortilla chip manufacturer can be affected by incomplete pericarp removal in several ways,” McKinney says. “First, the remaining pericarp can affect the appearance of the chip, making chips from white corn darker and generally making the chips less attractive to the consumer.”

The remaining pericarp could also affect the process. The partially dissolved pericarp has a gummy consistency and can build up on the equipment that sheets out the masa (tortilla dough), potentially resulting in expensive downtime for the processing line. This laboratory test performed up front can improve the efficiency of the process and the quality of the product, McKinney says.

In some markets, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) are a greater issue than grain quality. “For those trying to export to certain markets, GMOs have got to be the biggest concern,” McKinney emphasizes. “Identity preservation (IP) programs are increasingly being used by the grain industry to help assure that grain with characteristics deemed to be undesirable by the purchaser is not commingled with the product they intend to receive.”

Traditionally, McKinney says, this could mean keeping yellow corn out of white corn or high protein soybeans for tofu separated from commodity soybeans. “These particular characteristics can be evaluated relatively quickly at the point of sale using visual ratings or NIR instruments,” he points out.

When GMOs are the undesirable trait, an IP program must employ testing techniques such as immunoassays (detection of the protein produced by the inserted gene) or PCR (polymerase chain reaction for detection of DNA segments). Immunoassays and PCR both work well for raw grain,” McKinney says. “After heat processing, the proteins are denatured, making PCR the preferred choice, even with its much higher cost and increased time-to-result.”

Strategic Alliance

In April, ICIA launched a strategic alliance with GeneScan USA, Inc. (GSUS; Metairie, La., a subsidiary of GeneScan Europe AG, a member of the Eurofins Group), to provide a broad range of technical expertise, consulting services and audit capacity to the agro-food industry. This cooperation, according to McKinney, is helping upgrade or develop programs related to vendor certification, identity preservation and traceability, as well as provide a full range of field and laboratory services.

Around the world, the movement towards the implementation of process control programs—such as farm-to-fork traceability, HACCP and GMP programs—is being driven by regulatory changes as well as pressure on extended supply chains that are often global in scope. “This has created a need for reliable and experienced support services to assist agro-food companies in developing, implementing and monitoring the processes that control the safety and quality of their supply chains,” McKinney says.