Mineral and Amino Acid Composition of Germinated and Canned Wheat Grains

Introduction. Grain germination can improve the nutritional value and functional properties of grain. The research featured the effect of technological processing on the quality of the finished product as in the case of natural, germinated, and canned wheat grains. A set of experiments was conducted to define the mineral substances and amino acid composition as factors that affect the chemical composition of a product during its production. Study objects and methods. The research featured soft wheat grain, germinated wheat grain, and canned germinated wheat grain. The latter consisted of 55% of pre-treated germinated wheat grain and 45% of filling, which contained 4.5% of sugar and 3.5% of salt. The content of mineral substances was determined by atomic-emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma using an atomicemission spectrometer Optima 2100 DV (USA). The amino acid composition was determined using a liquid chromatograph Agilent 1200 (USA). Results and discussion. 100 grams of canned germinated grain contained about 15% of daily manganese, 12% of chromium (III), 8.4% of copper, and 8.3% of zinc. Canned germinated wheat demonstrated a high biological protein value and contained 20.6% of essential amino acids. As for amino acids, canned germinated wheat grains had a high content of proline (958.4 mg/100 g) and glutamic acid (2456.4 mg/100 g). The characteristics of the nutritional value of canned protein from germinated wheat grains included amino acid rate, amino acid feedstock difference coefficient (AAFDC), and potential biological value (PBV). The proteins of canned germinated wheat appeared inferior in their amino acid composition and contained insufficient amounts of lysine and threonine. The coefficient of differences in amino acid scores was 71.9%, while the potential biological value of the protein was 28.1%. Conclusion. Germinated grains have a certain set of minerals and amino acids in their composition. Therefore, they can be used to develop canned foods or dishes for public catering industry. The effect of technological processing on the mineral composition of the finished product resulted in the loss of mineral substances from 45 to 85%. Moreover, germinated wheat should be combined with products that are rich in lysine and threonine.