The relationship between grade and processing quality characteristics of Canada Western Red Spring wheat

Abstract

A primary objective of a grading system is to enhance price efficiency. Theoretically, grading systems increase price efficiency by making available to the end-users more information about the good. It has been suggested however, that the Canadian wheat grading system fails to enhance price efficiency because it provides end-users with little information on the criteria that end-users consider important, the processing quality characteristics. Specifically, it is perceived by some that there is an insignificant difference in processing quality characteristics between grades. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether there exists a significant difference in processing characteristics between grades Nos. 1,2 and 3 C.W.R.S. wheat. The approach taken to fulfill this objective involved obtaining test results on processing quality criteria by grade and applying a statistical test to the data. The statistical test served to group together those test results which exhibited no significant difference. The statistical test used is referred to as a "Duncan's Test". The results indicated that for no comparisons between two different grades were all processing characteristics significantly different. The comparison of some treatments proved substantially more similar (e.g. No. 1C.W.R.S. 13.5% vs. No. 2C.W.R.S. 13.5%) than did the comparison between other treatments (e.g. No. 1C.W.R.S. 14.5% vs. No. 3C.W.R.S.). It was concluded that the horizontal orientation of protein content of C.W.R.S. wheat exaggerated certain results. For those comparisons of grades of comparable protein contents, it was concluded that the relationship between protein content and the rheological and bread volume characteristics was partially responsible for the large number of processing characteristics that were shown not to be different. However, the above conclusion did not explain the similarity of the remaining processing characteristics between grades. Finally, it was concluded that an insignificant difference between grades in terms of processing quality characteristics prevents the grading system for C.W.R.S. wheat from enhancing optimal pricing efficiency.