Australia
June 4, 2013

Off-flavour contamination in Australian peanuts has the potential to cause major product downgrades.

Dr Graeme Wright, Peanut Company of Australia (PCA) says the contamination is caused by microorganisms called actinomycetes which produce a musty, earthy off-flavour under different environmental conditions.

Contamination of peanuts can occur in the field during the growing season and also during post-harvest storage and handling, with the off-flavour potentially resulting in large financial costs for growers and processors, he says.

A new Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) fact sheet outlines new GRDC guidelines for a number of pre-harvest and post-harvest practices to minimise the risk and ensure best management practice.

Rapid and low-cost analytical techniques aimed at detecting off-flavour compounds are being developed to assist in the management of the actinomycetes.

The factsheet Peanut off-flavours can be downloaded from www.grdc.com.au/GRDC-FS-PeanutOffFlavour.

Website: http://www.grdc.com.au

Published: June 4, 2013