Qualidade Industrial de Grãos de Arroz (Oryza sativa L.) após Tratamento com Gás Fosfina Usado para Controle de Pragas no Armazenamento.

Abstract

To preserve rice grain, from harvesting to food consumption, from stored pests, phosphine gas (PH3) is the most widely used fumigant. Despite that large use of fumigant no data are found regarding the influence of phosphine applied on grain in storage on the quality parameters of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of phosphine on the food quality of rice, as well as its effect on the biological and sanitary parameters of the grain. The assessment of gas concentration during grain fumigation, stored rice pest mortality on Rhyzopertha dominica, effects on industrial and technological quality of grain, and biological and sanitary quality were performed in the experiment. The results of gas concentration measured during grain fumigation showed high performance of gas distribution on chambers. Phosphine was efficient on pest mortality and no adverse effect on industrial, technological, biological and sanitary grain quality was found. This allows us to infer that phosphine fumigation used to control stored grain pests such as R. dominica does not affect the food quality of rice.