Experiments were carried out to improve the measurement of the viscosity of cereal water extracts. Water extract viscosity (WEV) appeared to be related to the particle size of the meals obtained after grinding. With ball-mills, viscosity was higher than with rotating-mills and also depended on grinding conditions such as quantity of grains, volume of the pot, number of balls and time of grinding. With rotating-mills fitted with a 0.5 mm screen, viscosity was quite constant whatever the type of mill was used. It also appeared that WEV decreased with time after filtration and temperature of storing extracts, but temperature during extraction had no effect on wheat WEV. These results allowed a standard protocol for measuring wheat WEV to be defined. (C) 1999 Society of Chemical Industry.

Water extract relative viscosity of 502 common wheat, 9 maize, 3 sorghum, 21 durum wheat, 36 triticale, 7 oat and 58 barley samples grown in France were measured. Water extract viscosity in wheat is higher than in maize and sorghum, slightly lower than in triticale and much lower than in most barleys. Variability of the relative viscosity for wheat extracts was mainly explained by varietal differences. The effect of the production location was less important and seemed to be partly explained by drought. Apart from irrigation, neither the differences in production methods (such as crop protection, nitrogen fertilization and date of sowing), nor sprouting nor storing had any effect on relative viscosity. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry

The digestion of 2 batches of wheat, 4 batches of barley and 1 batch of pea was studied through ileal and faecal digestibility measurements, ileal viscosity measurements and also, for wheat and pea, through ileal transit time measurements. Ileal digestibility coefficients of organic matter and energy are higher for wheat than for barley or pea whereas faecal digestibility coefficients are similar for wheat and pea, and higher than for barley. Ileal viscosity of digesta is much faster for pea than for cereals while digesta seem to transit through the ileum at a faster rate for pea than for wheat.