> ...Wheat, for example, when stored
> for long periods in grain elevators, can develop fungi and moulds that, in
> turn, produce poisons called mycotoxins. They can get into our bodies
> when we eat bread and pasta...
Since they were talking about Canada, I'd like to correct a couple of points.
95% of the wheat grown in Canada and all of the wheat used for making bread &
pasta in Canada is grown out here in the west. When neccesary, wheat is stored
in the west in farmers bins under the cool, dry conditions prevalent here.
Farmers aerate the grain to prevent mould growth & other degrading factors that
would lower the worth of their product. Thats part of farm management & its one
the principal winter activities on the farm during the 4 months when the temp is
below -20' (not ideal conditions for mould growth!). Wheat is never stored in
grain elevators (too expensive). The elevator is used only to collect enough
semi-trailer loads (40t) of grain to ship 50 or 100 car unit trains (4000-8000t)
to terminals at export position. The terminals collect enough tonnage to load
ocean-going freighters (15,000t & up). All of this is done in a "just in time"
fashion. The companies that own these facilities make their money on throughput
& 'turn' the facilities 6 or 7 times in a crop year. It may be theoretically
possible to culture mycotoxins in stored grain somewhere, but the conditions
prevalent in Canada militate pretty strongly against it...
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