Warehouse Receipts Quality Specifications

As part of GGC’s mandate to promote quality grains for the warehouse receipts system, it has collaborated with the Ghana Standards Authority, the national body responsible for the development and promulgation of national quality standards to develop pictorials to facilitate the educational campaign on relevant national quality standards of grain commodities to create awareness among stakeholders in the industry.

Grades of Maize

[su_document url=”http://www.ghanagrainscouncil.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PDF-001-pictorial-for-maize.pdf”]

Although grains are expected to be of excellent quality, tolerances are allowed leading to the grading of grains. Grading is done according to the presence of other grains, degree of physical defects, foreign matter, filth, etc.

Quality parameters may be divided into two — chemical and physical

Chemical Quality Parameters Assessed In The Laboratory

• Moisture Content — Well dried with a maximum moisture content of 12%
• Aflatoxin Content — Contamination shall not exceed 15% pg/kg. Aflatoxin is a poison produced by fungi or moulds that grow on wet grain
• Heavy Metal and Pesticide Residues — Absence of contamination from agrochemicals
• Other parameters include fat, oil and protein content