Application of LED lighting in cereal production: use and benefits

Abstract

This chapter reviews several studies related to the use of light emmiting diodes (LEDs) in various aspects of crop production and food processing. In this sense, in food industry and focusing on cereal industry, the use of different LED lighting has been compared according to their wavelength and material from which are made of LED lights, sodium lights, xenon lights, and solar light in crops of spring wheat, spring barley, and oats. Obtained results shows as LED lighting with a blue/red composition is effective in promoting short stems, which is desirable for certain crops. Furthermore, the impact of different LED light regimes on the enrichment of bioactive substances has been also investigated. Thus, authors discovered that varying light compositions influenced the levels of phenolic compounds, with different responses observed for different varieties of buckwheat. In addition, the use of UV LED light pulses for disinfecting wheat flour contaminated with Salmonella spp. has shown to be effective to reduce the bacterial counts of such strain without affecting the quality of the flour. Lastly, LED lighting is also applied to cereal crops for hyperspectral imaging to determine moisture content in cereal bar manufacturing, which also needs further research to be optimized. Overall, these studies have demonstrated the potential benefits and limitations of using LED lights in various agricultural and food processing applications, which are going to be assessed in the present book chapter