Storing Sunflower Seeds and Quality Losses During Storage

Abstract

The aim of storage is to preserve properties of products and their freshness. If suitable storage conditions aren't supplied according to product variety, quality and quantity losses increase. Decreasing this losses is possible with providing suitable storage condition and storage management. In this study, sunflower storage buildings in the Thrace Region were examined. Influences of storage condition on product losses were investigated. The study was conducted in one of the Thrace Union's reinforced concrete store, temporary store and a model store having aeration system built specificly for this research in Tekirdag Agricultural Faculty's area. Temperature and relative humidity of the sunflower mass as storage conditions in the stores and moisture content, oil content and free fatty acids contents as quality parameters were monitored during the storage. According to the results of experiments in selected stores, the worst storage conditions and the most quality losses were determined in the concrete store, on the other hand the most suitable conditions and the least losses were determined in model store. © 2005, by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.