291 Recent developments in NIR analysis of grains and grain products.

B. G. OSBORNE. BRI Australia Ltd, P.O. Box 7, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia.

NIR is used in the Australian grains industry by plant breeders to measure key quality specifications, by growers to target fertilizer requirements and blend grain to meet receival standards, by grain handlers to perform load-by-load protein testing and by processors to select and sort raw materials and to control the processes. A number of research providers, including nearly all plant breeding institutes, are using NIR to further their research objectives. The Grain Industries Centre for NIR was established in 1996 to bring 12 research providers across six states together into a network, coordinate their research and provide them with a focus and a support platform. The NIR Centre is also responsible for strategic research to underpin the applied research carried out nationally across all grain crops. As a result, rational and predictable NIR applications are being developed to encompass grain hardness, extensibility of dough, quality for feed, malting quality of barley and many other specifications for crops such as oilseeds and pulses. Key achievements to date include a detailed review of NIR research in the Australian grains industry; accurate determination of digestible energy in cereals for growing pigs; a novel method for measuring optimum dough mixing in real time; improved prediction of flour starch damage and on-line measurement of degree of cook during extrusion processing of wheat flour.