Evaluation of nutritional characteristics of corn stored in metallic silos

Abstract

This study assessed the nutritional quality attributes of maize (Zea mays) stored in metallic silos for a period of eight months in the humid tropics of Nigeria. The nutritional properties (NP) evaluated are percentage ash content (AC), crude fibre (CF), crude protein (CP), carbohydrate content (CHO), fat content (FC), and energy value (EV). The initial or control values were compared with the values obtained during storage. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 20) was used to determine the significant levels of data while the Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Duncan’s multivariate test were used to determine the trend of deterioration (P<0.05) for all the values. The minimum and maximum average temperatures during storage were 29oC in July (wet season) and 34.7oC in April (dry season) respectively. The minimum and maximum average relative humidities during the storage period were 51% in March (dry season) and 71% in May (wet season) respectively. The mean deviation of FC, CP, AC, CHO, CF and EV are 7.25%±1.00%, 8.79%±0.87%, 3.5%±0.88%, 63.36%±0.99%, 6.25%±0.96% and 361.55%±1.00% respectively for the control in respect of the position of the grain in the bulk. FC, CP, AC, and CF decreases from 7.0% to 1.2%, 8.79% to 6.33%, 3.5% to 2.3% and 6.25% to 3.21% respectively during storage while the values CHO and EV increases from 63.36% to 83.2% and 360 kcal to 395 kcal during the storage.