The safety of raw components in brewing: the modern view on the problem

The paper deals with the analysis of brewing market in Russia. It’s found out that at present Russia has high import dependence on some agricultural products as a result of low quality of raw components, caused by high sensibility of cereal crops to phytopathogenic microorganisms. Under such conditions it’s difficult for Russian manufacturers to produce goods which can compete with the world leaders. The brewing sector hasn’t become an exception. Annually, more than 40% of malt is imported in Russia. In this regard great attention should be paid to the issues of safety and quality of raw materials on the grain basis. The Alternaria contamination of different cereal crops, including barley, is commonly found. The most dangerous result of grain contamination is a significant amount of mycotoxins of fungal metabolites, harmful for both people and animals. The mycological analysis of malting barley contamination by this fungal infection has discovered the presence in the microbiota different types of fungi, including Alternaria. The high percent of grain contamination by this fungal infection has been registered (in check samples this indicator makes up more than 50 %). In this regard the search for ways of minimization of dangerous factors will enable us to guarantee the effective use of raw resources and safety of derivative products in the brewing technology. In the author’s opinion, one of the effective ways is decontamination of barley grains by the electromagnetic field energy of ultra-high frequency, as this type of impact at the heating rate of 0.6-0.8 °С/s and the exposure of processing 60-90 s lead to the antiseptic effect practically in case of all types of fungal infections, including fungi Alternaria.