# Washing corn ??



## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

Last year when I bought some feed corn, it was in the back of my mind that the local livestock feed store has all the grain I would need for grinding/personal use. I asked the Lady there about using it for food and she replied ' You wouldn't want to use this, it's too dirty'. Maybe between harvest, transport, sale and storage that feed corn and other feed grains for animals aren't kept in squeaky clean conditions. Maybe the feed grain is exposed to dirt, bugs, dust etc. Can anyone share some information about the care and process of common dent corn that is used for human consumption, versus the same dent corn that is used as livestock feed. Is corn 'washed' when it gets to the factory to be ground for meal and flour?
Ohio Rusty


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## diane (May 4, 2002)

I have often wondered the same thing. Dirty can mean a lot of things can't it. When we shipped grain dirty ment that it had a lot of chaff and weed seed in it. Perhaps that is what she was meaning?


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

They do run some corn thru cleaners. It basically runs them thru screens and has a blower to remove dirt and insects etc. You can certainly wash corn if you want. The hull is too tough to soak up the water easily. What I buy doesn't seem dirty. I check it pretty close before I grind it to make sure no rocks or stuff go thru the grinder.


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

Look up "Fanning mills". They don't clean soil that's really caked on, but remove dust, chaff & loose dirt quite readily. They've gone up in price with the use of corn stoves. You'd want several screens with it sized for the grain you're cleaning.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've seen some mighty clean corn, and some that was half dust, dirt, and whatnot... depends on the provider. In a crunch, I'd not hesitate to load up the 1 ton with every available bag... take it home, thresh out the corn from the dust, and grind it for cornmeal... if/when I got a buggy bag, the critters would eat it.

Make sure you don't end up with aflotoxin corn... might not kill you, but it might get your critters... Rare, but it does happen.


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## Guest (Jan 24, 2008)

It's no big deal to clean grain yourself. It's called winnowing and mostly all you need is a good wind.

Wind is a fickle thing around here though so what I do is use a box fan and a deep box. Pour the grain out of a pan through the wind from the fan into the box. Exactly how near or far you should be depends so you'll have to experiment a bit. If you're too close you'll have grain blown away with the chaff. Too far away and the chaff will fall into the box with the grain instead of being blown away. Obviously this is a job to be done outside.

The real concern with feed corn is any possibly mycotoxin content. This is especially a concern in drought years when some types of grain molds are worse than other years. Be sure to ask if the grain has been tested first. Grain that is to be fed to any type of poultry or to dairy animals has the same aflatoxin limit as human grain which is twenty parts per billion. Grain intended for other purposes may have a higher limit, sometimes much higher. Deer corn may or may not have been checked.

Mycotoxins are rarely acutely toxic, at least here in the United States. The problem with them is that they can be carcenogenic (cancer causing). You may never know that you've eaten a large amount of mycotoxins because there would be no obvious outward symptoms. Years later though when you develop cancer it may have had it starts in that pan of mycotoxin laden corbread you made from untested corn. 

.....Alan.


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

Feed suppliers do not want to assume any liability, that's why they would tell you not to eat the corn that is available. The fact is that some corn is exposed to rodents and occasionally birds like sparrows. Droppings, hair, and fethers tend to dull the appetite. When the grain is cleaned it would be fine. Nobody is going to eat raw corn meal. Cooking kills most germs. Even the price of corn is going up. The last shelled corn that I purchased was $5.74 for 50#. That would make a lot of cornbread.


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## ozarkcat (Sep 8, 2004)

Beyond winnowing, you can get any other dirt off by tossing the corn in a sieve/colander and rinsing it a bit.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I saw a truck getting a load at one of the local elevators yesterday. Not sure if it was corn or soybeans, but man, you should have seen the dust flying! Seems just putting it on the truck got rid of a lot of stuff.


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## cornbread (Jul 4, 2005)

Off topic Soybeans

Off topic but just was wondering if any of you store Soybeans if so how many?


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## jerzeygurl (Jan 21, 2005)

if you look a bit you can get antique grain cleaners with the specific screens for a little bit of nothing....


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## THETOOLMAN (Feb 15, 2008)

I always thought that DIRTY meant pestacides? maybe not


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## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

All corn, whether it's feed grade or food grade, organic or not, is "dirty" when it comes out of the combine. You can't keep all foreign material from going INTO the combine, it takes in bugs, the odd small animal, whatever's on the ear of corn standing in the field. As long as you can screen out the foreign material you'll be ok. Best bet is to find out where the hog farmers in your area are getting their corn, they'll be making sure it's tested for mycotoxins. Or you can ask the feedmill to make sure it's been tested.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

we've been studying up on making tortillas from scratch. the corn would be washed, cooked with lime and the shells removed. Then the kernals mashed to make a dough.
This way if the corn is dirty , we have a good chance it will be clean by the time we eat it.


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## kypossumdog (Jun 2, 2004)

You might want to be concerned with the fact that the elevators/feed mills might be selling GMO corns approved as animal feeds but not as human food stuffs.


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