Grading Wheat Berries, and black point.

Jaog,   I didn't read those articles in detail, just skimmed them.  however, somewhere, either in those pages, or other web pages, there is mention of effect on human health.  

for one disease that affects durum, some article mentioned "ppm" for the blight or fungus, in order to be approved for human consumption.

 Not in those cited above, but some article talked about how during a wet year, a very large percentage of Canada's durum had to be diverted to animal feed.  Recently durum in NW North Dakota and NE Montana had some blight, enough to really mess up the farmers, and likely mess up the pasta market.

I hand sort all my grain prior to milling, 1/4 cup at a time.  I put a rough white paper towel on the counter, then a smooth sheet of parchment on top of it, spread out the grain, shake/jiggle  the parchment, and remove obvious:

• black point that's beyond a tiny amount. Sorry I can't quantify tiny. I may do pics at some time. But if it sticks out like a sore thumb, or is in the "crease" or looks like it got into the germ, I pull it out. The UK link above gives three grades of worsening blackpoint.  Black point is the number one reason, by far, for why I will take out a grain during the sort.
• broken kernals
• green kernals
• obviously dessicated (full size, but obviously dried out ) kernals.
• shrunken, shriveled or malformed kernals.
• kernals of the wrong color, or just "too different."
• foreign matter

Broken kernals dry out, so those and the green, or dessicated, or shrunken kernals are going to affect dough performance.  At what percentage, I don't know.  The implication of the US Grade standards is that there would be something noticeable between Grade 1 and Grade 2.   But Grade 2 is supposedly suitable for human consumption, and I think Grade 3 and 4 are for animal feed, but don't hold me to that.

I may shake/jiggle the parchment, or run my hand over the grain to get it to flip more.  I had one "less good" batch/bag of HWSW (not PG)  that had about 4% blackpoint that I felt bad  enough about to remove by hand. I actually weighed some samples and some takeouts.  So it was barely US Grade 2.

The only real problem is if a vendor is selling something at a Grade lower than advertised.  If you get Grade 2, you can't complain unless it was advertised as Grade 1. You might have reason to squawk if the Grade was not specified, and you were charged Grade 1 "prices" (ie, an "implied" specification) for a Grade 2 product.

Retailers probably do not  inspect grain if they arrive in sealed bags, and sell only whole bags. But then, any reputable retailer  would want honest customer feedback anyway, especially if the customer is not satisfied.

Bulk bins at grocery stores can be tricky, if there are no date codes, or if bins are at floor level and bugs have access, or low turnover causes the grain to dry out.

I forget the exact year, but around 2005 or 2006, it was just a wet year, and a lot of white spring wheat went out as Grade 2 due to black point.  I understand that a grower's big commercial contracts are going to get serviced first, and grain destined for the home market takes a lower priority.

The Kamut that I get from CLNF is by far the best grain I've ever purchased, in terms of having to remove defective kernals.

I live in an area that gets free shipping from CLNF off their own trucks if you order at least $400 or $450.  And there is a local lady who does group orders.  See their two "truck delivery" pages with links at the bottom of their main web page. Call or email, and they can tell you if there is already a group order person in your city.