Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Scope of colloid mill for industrial wet grinding for batter

preparation of some Indian snack foods
S.N. Solanki a, R. Subramanian a,*
, Vasudeva Singh b, S.Z. Ali b, B. Manohar a

a
Department of Food Engineering, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570020, India
b
Department of Grain Science and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570020, India

Received 19 February 2004; accepted 8 July 2004

Abstract

A colloid mill was comparatively evaluated with domestic wet grinding systems, namely, a mixer grinder and a stone grinder for
grinding of raw rice, parboiled rice and black gram. The wet ground samples were also compared with dry ground samples. The finer
the particle size the greater was the starch damage both in dry and wet grinding. Wet grinding generally resulted in a much lower
average particle size (79–131 lm) than dry grinding (221–297 lm). The starch damage was the least in black gram (3%) followed
by raw rice (8%) and parboiled rice (11%) in dry grinding. In wet grinding, the starch damage in black gram (1–2%) as well as
raw rice (0.5–2%) remained more or less same whereas the parboiled rice (21–35%) showed greater damage. Parboiled rice required
2.5–3 times the energy (216–252 kJ/kg) as that of raw rice (72–108 kJ/kg) for grinding in the mixer grinder and the stone grinder. The
colloid mill appears to have a potential for industrial adoption.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Batter; Black gram; Damaged starch; Dry grinding; Microscopic structure; Parboiled rice; Particle size analysis; Raw rice; Specific energy
consumption; Wet grinding

1. Introduction wet grinding involves both physical and chemical

Generally cereal and legume based batter products
form an important part of the human diet in Southeast
Asia including India, the Middle East and Africa. There
is an increasing interest in traditional foods of Indian
origin like idli, dosa and vada, which are still being man-
ufactured according to traditional and technologically
less advanced methods (Soni & Sandhu, 1990). For the
preparation of these traditional foods, rice (Oryza sati-
va) and black gram (Phaseolus mungo) are principally
used. A critical step in the making of batter for these tra-
ditional foods is wet grinding of rice and black gram.
Dry grinding is a mere size reduction operation whereas
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 821 251 4874; fax: +91 821 251
7233.
E-mail address: subbu@cscftri.ren.nic.in (R. Subramanian).
changes (Kent & Evers, 1994). In wet grinding of cere-
als, the protein matrix holding the starch is destroyed,
releasing the starch from the protein network. Desika-
char et al. (1960) conducted a classical study, aimed at
eliminating the need for wet grinding and concluded
that the flour-presoaking method could be an alternative
to the conventional wet grinding process. However, wet
grinding still remains as the practical method for the
preparation of idli as well as dosa, even four decades
after their study. Nagaraju and Manohar (2000) studied
the particle size distribution in idli batter during the
course of fermentation and it can be concluded from
their data that there was no significant increase in mean
particle size after 23 h of fermentation period as com-
pared to the initial batter.
Solanki (2003) has reviewed the developments that
have taken place in wet grinding implements in the

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.07.007
24 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30
country. Traditionally the pestle and mortar type gad-
get was the first known implement used for wet grind-
ing. This is a manual operation and the drudgery of
this operation has been almost totally eliminated with
the invention of modern wet grinders in 1960s. In
these grinders, the mechanical arrangement of provid-
ing rotation to the mortar instead of the pestle nearly
simulated the grinding action of the traditional mortar
and pestle. Subsequently, mixer grinders generally used
for light duty operations such as juice making were
upgraded for heavy-duty operations and introduced
to the market for wet grinding applications. The batter
produced from this mixer grinder with adequate care
gave acceptable quality products. Further improve-
ments in the mechanical wet grinder led to the devel-
opment of home-scale tilting and tabletop wet
grinders.
There were significant attempts at improving existing
types and development of new types of wet grinders suit-
able for the domestic kitchen, but no effort had been
made at developing systems for large-scale operation.
On the other hand, the market is witnessing batter being
sold in plastic pouches. There is a clear demand for
industrial wet grinding systems that could help in estab-
lishing organized industries so that a variety of batters
could be handled.
The approach to developing an appropriate system
necessitates such a system should be able to work in a
continuous/semi-continuous mode to produce an
acceptable quality of batter in terms of product quality
and also be capable of adaptation to any scale of oper-
ation. Colloid mills appear to hold some promise and
are industrially viable for this purpose.
In the present study, a colloid mill has been evaluated
and its performance has been compared with the cur-
rently used domestic wet grinding systems such as the
mixer grinder and the stone grinder (tabletop type) as
well as with a dry grinding system (hammer mill) for
grinding of rice and black gram. Raw as well as par-
boiled rice was studied as both of them are used either
alone or together depending on the type of snack food
being produced. Besides, in the case of parboiled rice
it is difficult to assess the actual starch damage due to
grinding as it is partially cooked during the parboiling
process. The assessment of different grinding methods
was mainly based on damaged starch, besides particle
size. Microscopic structure analysis was carried out on
selected samples.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Paddy (MTU 1000 variety) was procured from the
National Seed Corporation, Mysore. The paddy was
parboiled by soaking in hot water overnight and
steaming at atmospheric pressure for 20 min. Raw rice
and parboiled rice were obtained by shelling and mill-
ing of the raw paddy and parboiled paddy using a
paddy sheller (Satake Corporation, Tokyo, Japan)
and a rice miller (McGill Mill, Houston, USA),
respectively. Black gram was procured from the local
market.
2.2. Grinding systems used
The following size reduction systems, three for wet
grinding and one for dry grinding were used in the
study: (1) a mixer grinder (kitchen appliance)—Type
MX32, M/s Braun AG, Frankfurt, Germany; (2) a stone
grinder (tabletop type kitchen appliance)—2 L capacity;
three cylindrical roller stones; Butterfly make; M/s
Gandhimathi Appliances Ltd., Kancheepuram, India;
(3) a colloid mill (pilot scale model)—Model MMS/O-
Eco, M/s Fryma Rheinfelden, Switzerland; (4) a
hammer mill (pilot scale model), M/s Gardeners Corpo-
ration, New Delhi, India.
2.3. Grinding techniques
2.3.1. Pre-treatment for wet grinding—soaking
Rice samples were soaked for 6 h at room tempera-
ture before grinding. Black gram samples were soaked
only for 3 h as fermentation starts early in black gram.
2.3.1.1. Mixer grinder. The grinding was carried out
intermittently so as to avoid excessive heat generation
in the batter, which could adversely affect its quality.
A pre-decided quantity of water was added gradually
during grinding to facilitate grinding (500, 1200 and
1050 ml/kg for raw rice, parboiled rice and black gram,
respectively) based on preliminary runs (for smooth
operation of the grinder). The water added transports
the solid particles through the action zone in the form
of free flowing slurry (Brennan, Butters, Cowell, & Lilly,
1976). The time taken for grinding raw rice, parboiled
rice and black gram (500 g each) were 4, 15 and 2 min,
respectively. The corresponding final temperatures of
the batter were 34, 40 and 31 °C, respectively (room tem-
perature (RT) 28 °C).
2.3.1.2. Stone grinder. A pre-decided quantity of water
was added gradually during grinding to facilitate grind-
ing (600, 1100 and 1400 ml/kg for raw rice, parboiled
rice and black gram, respectively) based on preliminary
runs (for smooth operation of the grinder). The temper-
ature did not show any significant rise during the grind-
ing operation and remained at 28 °C. During grinding
of black gram, a lot of foam was generated which lim-
ited the batch capacity (Batch size: rice 1 kg; black gram
250 g).
 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30
2.3.1.3. Colloid mill. A pre-decided quantity of water
was added during grinding (1330, 1200 and 1300 ml/kg
for raw rice, parboiled rice and black gram, respectively)
based on preliminary runs (for smooth operation of the
grinder). The time taken for grinding 1 kg of parboiled
rice and black gram were 1 min each. The correspond-
ing final temperatures of the batter for raw rice and par-
boiled rice were 31 and 35 °C, respectively (RT 28 °C).
The temperature did not show any significant rise during
grinding of black gram.
2.3.2. Dry grinding
Dry grinding was performed in the hammer mill fitted
with a control sieve (0.8 mm perforations) in the grind-
ing chamber.
2.4. Performance assessment
The grinding performance was evaluated mainly
based on damaged starch and by particle size analysis.
Microscopic structure analysis was also carried out for
selected samples.
2.4.1. Damaged starch
2.4.1.1. Sample preparation. The wet ground samples
were treated with an excess quantity of 50% aqueous
ethyl alcohol and centrifuged (1100 g) to remove the
supernatant. The residue obtained was spread in a thin
layer and dried. This prevented agglomeration and lump
formation during drying. The dried sample could be
converted into a fine powder with gentle pressing by
hand. This method offered reasonably good samples
suitable for damaged starch analysis.
Dry ground samples were directly used in damaged
starch analysis.
2.4.1.2. Determination of damaged starch. The starch
damage in the ground rice and black gram samples were
determined generally according to AACC method 76-
30A (AACC, 1999). Reducing sugars in these samples
were determined generally according to AACC method
80-60 (AACC, 1999). These methods are recommended
for milled products of wheat (flour and semolina), and
were adopted with slight modifications for determination
of starch damage in rice and black gram based on the
confirmatory studies on many non-wheat cereals at the
Department of Grain Science and Technology at CFTRI.
2.4.2. Particle size analysis
Particle size analysis was carried out using two differ-
ent methods, sieve analysis (dry ground powder and wet
ground batter) and using a wet particle size analyzer.
2.4.2.1. Sieve analysis. This is a physical method of size
classification using standard test sieves. The dry ground
powder samples were size classified into four fractions
25
by using 44, 60 and 85 mesh sieves (B.S.S) with 355,
250 and 180 lm openings, respectively.
In case of wet ground samples, a reasonable quantity
of batter (1000 ml) was subjected to successive sieving
starting from large to small sieves (100–150–200 mesh
sieves) as per the method of Vasudeva Singh, Guha,
Aswathanarayana, and Ali (2002). Excess water was
added during each sieving to avoid inter particle adher-
ence and to improve the sieving efficiency. The individ-
ual fractions were dried at 40 °C (48 h) and weighed.
The weight fractions were obtained from the ratio of
individual fractions to the total sum of the fractions.
2.4.2.2. Wet particle size analyzer. A computerized
inspection system (model: CIS-100, M/s Galai Produc-
tion, Israel) capable of measuring particles in the range
of 0.2–3600 lm based on time-of-transition (TOT) the-
ory (Weiner, Walther, & Karasikov, 1996) was em-
ployed. The TOT technique eliminates inconsistencies
due to refractive index, viscosity variations, brownian
motion, thermal convection and other physical phenom-
ena. The particle size analysis channel used a 2 mW He–
Ne laser with a wavelength of 632.8 nm. The detector
used was a silicon PIN photo diode. The reliability of
measurement was up to two decimal places.
A small quantity (10 g) of representative sample was
drawn into a large beaker after thorough mixing of
the batch. The representative sample was diluted suffi-
ciently with water (100 ml). The glass cuvette (3.5 ml)
was filled with this diluted sample and placed in the laser
path of the instrument. A magnetic stirrer kept the par-
ticles in suspension. The system software automatically
generated the particle size distribution either in graphi-
cal or tabular mode. Acquisition times for size analysis
were less than 1 min. TheP volume P mean diameter is de-
fined as being equal to (x4 dN)/ (x3 dN), where, x is
the mean particle size corresponding to the range and
dN denotes number of particles in that range. Assuming
all particles have same diameter, the volume mean diam-
eter is equal to the weight mean diameter.
2.4.3. Microscopic structure of ground particles
Photomicrographs of the ground particles were ob-
tained using a scanning electron microscope (model:
Leo 435 VP, M/s Leo Electron Microscopy, UK). Dry
ground and freeze dried wet ground samples were used
in microscopic structure analysis.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Raw rice
3.1.1. Dry grinding
The various size fractions obtained from sieve analy-
sis of dry and wet ground raw rice samples were
26 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30

analyzed for starch damage and the results are presented
in Table 1. The results shows that starch damage was
greater in the case of dry grinding (7.7%) compared to
wet grinding (0.4–2.1%). In the case of dry grinding, typ-
ically as in the hammer mill, the major force involved is
ÔimpactÕ. Dry grinding is achieved by the mechanical
conversion of larger pieces in to smaller pieces that re-
sults in more fractures in the starch granule leading to
greater damage. The results also showed that the starch
damage increased with greater reduction in particle size.
In other words, the finer the size of the particle, the high-
er was the starch damage. This could be probably due to
the fact that greater size reduction requires greater
grinding energy, which results in greater starch granule
damage as well.
3.1.2. Wet grinding
As pointed out earlier, the extent of starch damage in
wet grinding is less compared to that in dry grinding. In
the case of wet grinding, the size reduction takes place
owing to the separation of the starch granules from
the protein matrix in which they are embedded. This is
a physical phenomenon, involving some chemical
changes as well, but not a mere mechanical operation
as in the case of dry grinding. This being a gentle oper-
ation resulted in less breakage of starch granules and
consequently less starch damage compared to the dry
grinding operation. In studies on the structure of rice
starch granules, starch is usually prepared by wet milling
instead of dry milling, to reduce damage to starch gran-
ules (Juliano, 1985). However, power consumption is
generally high for wet grinding (Brennan et al., 1976).
The average starch damage in the three methods of
wet grinding employed was generally low and in the
range of 0.4–2.1% (Table 1). The wet sieve analysis of
these batters showed that the mean particle sizes were
131, 125 and 82 lm in the mixer grinder, stone grinder
and colloid mill, respectively. As the conditions em-
ployed during grinding in different systems were not typ-
ically the same, it was not possible to obtain the same
size range of particles in the batters. Significant differ-
ences in starch damage were not seen among the three
types of wet grinding system used. However, it could
be seen that the starch damage was the least in the col-
loid mill followed by the mixer grinder and the stone
grinder. In colloid mill grinding, interestingly the starch
damage remained the same in all the four size fractions.
Shear forces are the predominant forces involved in size
reduction in a colloid mill. Stone grinding showed the
greatest starch damage among the three systems used.
The major forces involved in mixer grinding are the cut-
ting forces while compression and shear are the major

Table 1
Effect of different grinding systems on starch damage in various size fractions of raw rice
Sample description Sieve analysis Starch damagea (%) Specific energy consumption (kJ/kg)
Particle size (lm) Weight fraction (%)
Dry grinding
Hammer mill >355 33.0 4.2 –b
250–355 25.1 6.2
180–250 12.3 8.3
<180 29.2 12.8
272c 7.7d

Wet grinding
Mixer grinder >150 70.3 0.8 72
105–150 6.3 1.2
75–105 – –
<75 23.4 1.6
131c 1.0d
Stone grinder >150 66.8 1.2 108
105–150 – –
75–105 – –
<75 33.1 3.8
125c 2.1d
Colloid mill >150 5.3 0.4 –
105–150 3.5 0.4
75–105 3.5 0.4
<75 88.0 0.4
82c 0.4d
a
Moisture content of sample, 12% (w.b).
b
Not determined.
c
Weighted average particle size.
d
Weighted average starch damage.
 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30 27

forces involved in stone grinding. The stone grinder
operation is, perhaps, severe compared to the other
two methods due to the compressive forces that induced
greater starch damage. This was also evident from the
higher specific energy consumption values obtained in
stone grinding. The operations of the mixer grinder
and the stone grinder are batch type while the colloid
mill is suitable for continuous operation. In the colloid
mill, two passes were required to achieve the desired
fineness of the batter.
3.2. Parboiled rice
The results of starch damage and particle size analy-
ses obtained with dry grinding and wet grinding of par-
boiled rice in various systems are presented in Table 2. A
comparison between dry and wet grinding showed that
dry grinding resulted in less starch damage compared
to wet grinding. This is quite contrary to what was ob-
served with raw rice. The starch damage as measured
was not only due to grinding but also depends on the
pre-treatment of the grain such as parboiling. This is evi-
dent from the fact that the starch damage, in both dry as
well as wet grinding in parboiled rice was much greater
than raw rice (Tables 1 and 2). In the case of parboiled
rice, the starch damage was much more pronounced in
wet grinding than dry grinding. Comparing the starch
damage in dry and wet grinding of raw and parboiled
rice, the extra energy required for wet grinding parboiled
rice would be much greater than for dry grinding. Com-
parison of specific energy consumption values showed
that 2.5- to 3-fold energy was required for wet grinding
parboiled rice over raw rice under otherwise similar con-
ditions. The extent of softening (a desirable effect for
grinding) due to soaking of parboiled rice probably, is
not as effective as in the case of raw rice.
The starch damage values measured in parboiled rice
batter samples could perhaps be only artifacts not indi-
cating the real effect of grinding alone. Although abso-
lute values obtained with parboiled rice may not have
any meaning in comparison with raw rice, a compara-
tive study within the same group would have some
meaning. During parboiling, starch granules become
much harder due to the hydrothermal treatment necessi-
tating much greater forces for segregation of starch
granules from the protein matrix, eventually leading to
its greater damage during wet grinding. It was observed
that wet grinding of raw rice (4 min) took less time than
the grinding of the same quantity of parboiled rice
(15 min) in the mixer grinder. This was also evident from
the power consumption for wet grinding of raw and par-
boiled rice. As in the case of raw rice, the finer the size of

Table 2
Effect of different grinding systems on starch damage in various size fractions of parboiled rice
Sample description Sieve analysis Starch damagea (%) Specific energy consumption (kJ/kg)
Particle size (lm) Weight fraction (%)
Dry grinding
Hammer mill >355 46.6 6.6 –b
250–355 25.8 9.9
180–250 11.2 13.6
<180 16.3 21.1
297c 10.6d

Wet grinding
Mixer grinder >150 39.4 19.4 216
105–150 9.4 21.7
75–105 – –
<75 51.2 24.2
110c 22.1d
Stone grinder >150 – – 252
105–150 9.5 26.9
75–105 10.9 30.1
<75 79.6 36.5
81c 34.9d
Colloid mill >150 – – 288
105–150 5.1 20.6
75–105 8.1 20.6
<75 86.8 21.1
79c 21.0d
a
Moisture content of sample, 12% (w.b).
b
Not determined.
c
Weighted average particle size.
d
Weighted average starch damage.
28 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30
the particle, the larger was the starch damage in dry
grinding of parboiled rice. The explanation given earlier
for raw rice holds well in the case of parboiled rice.
The analysis of batters obtained from the three wet
grinding systems employed showed that the particle size
in these batters fell into a reasonably narrow range be-
tween 79 and 110 lm allowing direct comparison of
the different methods. As in the case of raw rice, stone
grinding showed greater starch damage in parboiled
rice. The starch damage in the colloid mill and mixer
grinder was nearly the same (21.0% and 22.1%) while
it was much more pronounced in the stone grinder
(34.9%). Although the speed of operation of the wet
grinder is much lower than the other two systems, the
time taken is much longer. Besides, the compressive
forces involved in stone grinding induce greater damage.
As in the case of raw rice, the starch damage remained
nearly the same in all the four size fractions of parboiled
rice ground in the colloid mill. Very high shear forces are
involved in colloid mill grinding and the number of
passes (three) employed may also play a significant role
in affecting the starch damage. Specific energy consump-
tion for grinding parboiled rice in the stone-grinder was
higher than the mixer grinder and also corresponds with
the extent of starch damage. However, specific energy
consumption of the colloid mill was higher than the
other two systems. The operation of the colloid mill
needs further optimization in terms of capacity utiliza-
tion with large-scale trials.
In parboiled rice, gelatinization of starch occurs dur-
ing the process of parboiling due to the hydrothermal
treatment and the fissures in the grains get sealed. Gelat-
inization also makes the starch more susceptible to the
action of amylase enzyme, a step required for the meas-
urement of damaged starch, thereby may interfere with
estimation of damaged starch in parboiled rice. The
AACC method used for the estimation of damaged
starch is actually the measurement of reducing sugars
in terms of ferricyanide reduced after hydrolysis by fun-
gal amylase enzyme.
3.3. Black gram
The results of starch damage analysis and particle size
analysis obtained with dry grinding and wet grinding of
black gram in various systems are presented in Table 3.
As in the case of raw rice, the extent of starch damage in
dry as well as wet grinding of black gram was generally
much lower (<3%) when compared with parboiled rice.
The results show that starch damage was marginally
higher in the case of dry grinding as compared to wet
grinding. A similar observation was made with raw rice
and the same explanation provided earlier holds good.
Among the three different materials used, black gram
showed the least starch damage followed by raw rice
and parboiled rice in the case of dry grinding. Whether
such low starch damage is exhibited only by black gram
dhal or is common with all types of pulses/legume dhal
needs further investigation. A comparison between dry
and wet grinding shows that the difference in the extent
of starch damage is only marginal. This may be due to
the nature of the grain. Black gram contains a lot of
mucilaginous (slimy) matter (Susheelamma & Rao,
1978), which may provide a cushioning effect to the
starch granules protecting them from greater damage.
In wet ground black gram (1.1–2.3%) as well as raw
rice (0.4–2.1%) individually, the starch damage was al-
most same but much less than that of wet ground par-
boiled rice (21.0–34.9%). The analysis of batters
obtained from the three wet grinding systems employed
showed that particle size in these batters from black
gram fell into a reasonably narrow range between 93
and 117 lm allowing direct comparison of the different
methods. There was not much variation in the starch
damage between the batters obtained from the mixer
grinder and the stone grinder. The colloid mill operation
showed slightly greater starch damage for black gram,
which could be related to the high shear forces and
material throughput in the system. Besides, two passes
were employed in the colloid mill. Specific energy con-
sumption for grinding black gram in the mixer grinder
was lower than that of parboiled rice. However, it was
2-fold higher than that of raw rice, which could be
due to the foaming associated with wet grinding of black
gram that limits the loading capacity of the grinding sys-
tem. Generally, the finer the particle size, the greater was
the starch damage in both dry and wet grinding of black
gram as well as rice.
3.4. Scanning electron micrography (SEM)
Photomicrographs of dry ground and freeze-dried
mixer grinder samples of parboiled rice are presented
in Fig. 1(a) and (b). The micrograph of the dry ground
sample shows that only a physical size reduction has
taken place while in the case of the wet ground sample,
the micrograph shows many separated starch granules
which were perhaps released from the protein matrix
in which they were embedded.
3.5. Wet particle size analysis
Wet ground batters of rice and black gram obtained
from the three grinding methods were subjected to sieve
analysis and classified into four fractions using 100, 150
and 200 mesh sieves (Tables 1–3). Particle size analysis
of the wet ground batter was also carried out using a
wet particle size analyzer and the results are presented
in Table 4.
The accuracy of the wet particle size analyzer meas-
urement is generally very high and requires less sample
as well as significantly less time for the measurement.
 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30 29

Table 3
Effect of different grinding systems on starch damage in various size fractions of black gram
Sample description Sieve analysis Starch damagea (%) Specific energy consumption (kJ/kg)
Particle size (lm) Weight fraction (%)
Dry grinding
Hammer mill >355 10.8 1.6 –b
250–355 14.1 2.1
180–250 13.5 2.5
<180 61.4 3.4
221c 2.9d

Wet grinding
Mixer grinder >150 18.8 0.8 144
105–150 6.3 0.8
75–105 – –
<75 75.0 1.2
93c 1.1d
Stone grinder >150 55.7 1.2 –
105–150 – –
75–105 – –
<75 44.3 1.2
117c 1.2d
Colloid mill >150 35.0 2.1 180
105–150 0.6 –
75–105 0.6 –
<75 63.7 2.5
102c 2.3d
a
Moisture content of sample, 12% (w.b).
b
Not determined.
c
Weighted average particle size.
d
Weighted average starch damage.

However, the samples needed to be sufficiently diluted
with water until it became less turbid. The measure-
ments obtained with the wet particle size analyzer did
not agree with the particle size distribution of the wet
sieve analysis (Tables 1–4). The reasons could be either
due to the difficulty in getting a representative sample
from the batch or due to the fact that the error gets mul-
tiplied with the number of dilutions while obtaining a
sample with less turbidity. Moreover, a batter contain-
ing more soluble substances (higher turbidity) is more
difficult to analyze with the instrument. On the other
hand, sieve analysis, being a physical method with a
large size sample, minimized the errors to a large extent.
However, this is a laborious method and requires a long
time. The data obtained from the wet sieving method
were considered more authentic and representative of
the batch. Hence, these values are used for discussion
in the earlier sections. As the wet particle size analyzer
offers great convenience in measurement, it is desirable
to standardize the procedure for reliable measurements
with batter.
Wet grinding resulted in a much lower average parti-
cle size as compared to dry grinding for black gram and
also for rice (Tables 1–3). Wet milling tends to produce
finer particles than those obtainable with dry milling
operations (Brennan et al., 1976). This not only de-
pended on the type of grinding but also on the grinding
conditions.
4. Conclusions
The study showed that the colloid mill has the poten-
tial to be developed as an industrial system for grinding
rice and black gram. Damaged starch and particle size
analyses revealed that the performance of the colloid
mill could be matched with the two accepted household
methods. In the case of wheat, water retention increases
with increase in starch damage and so also its rheologi-
cal properties such as stickiness of its dough. Starch
damage is essential for fermentation of batter in the tra-
ditional products such as idli and dosa. However, there
are no reports relating starch damage and quality of
these rice-based products, which may be worth studying.
Besides greater shear forces, the temperature rise during
grinding in the colloid mill was also much higher com-
pared to the other two methods. It may be desirable to
optimize the grinding conditions in the colloid mill
including employing a coolant during grinding. An
assessment of the final product including sensory analy-
ses should reveal the desired extent of starch damage
and suitability of the method for industrial adoption.
30 S.N. Solanki et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 23–30

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Director, CFTRI for provid-

ing the necessary facilities. K. Anbalagan helped in
obtaining the photomicrographs in SEM.

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