SEGREGATING RED AND WHITE WHEAT VISUALLY AND WITH A TRISTIMULUS COLORMETER

With red-grained wheat now being grown in Australia in some places, th ere is a need to segregate it from white grain at the silo to avoid lo ss of milling and end-use quality. The Minolta tristimulus colour mete r and visual inspection have been assessed as possible means to facili tate this segregation. Using only reflected light for sample illuminat ion, 86% of a restricted sample set were correctly classified visually , and 95% of all samples using the Minolta meter. These values were in creased to up to 99% in both cases by additionally using transmitted l ight to illuminate the samples. Thus both the Minolta and visual metho ds that included alternate use of both illuminant sources provided goo d segregation of red and white wheat samples. Sample transillumination was particularly helpful for classifying vitreous white grain, and al so red grain that had been bleached by rain.