Milling

- Transformation of a product into a form suitable for either human or livestock consumption
- Process of transforming rough rice or Palay into a form suitable for human consumption with
max. % of whole kernels
o Rice to whole milled rice while
o Wheat and Corn to fines like flour starches
Rice Milling
- After harvesting and drying
- crucial step in rice post-production of rice
- Removal/separation of husk (dehusking) and bran layers
- To produce the edible portion for consumption, white rice kernel that is sufficiently milled and
free of impurities

Rice Milling Operations

1. Hulling
- Process of removing the husk from the paddy grain
2. Whitening
- Process of removing the bran by either friction or abrasion or both
- Most rice varieties are composed of roughly 20% rice hull or husk, 11% bran layers, and 69%
starchy endosperm, also referred to as the total milled rice.
- Hullers, huskers, dehuskers, shellers

Types of Huller
1. Under-runner disc huller
- Clearance adjustment of the stone disc is set to ½ the average length of paddy grain
- The under-runner husker is very common in Asia.
- very economical to run,
- produces a moderate amount of cracked or broken grain, and
- has a hulling efficiency of about 85-90%.
- Machine is very heavy and requires a moderate size operating space.
- This process scratches the rice kernel.
- Rice recovery less than the rubber rolls huller.
 2. Rubber – Roll Huller
- Clearance adjustment between the two rollers must be maintained at about ½ the thickness
- Speeds of the rollers must be maintained at 12 m/s
- Faster roller wears out faster than the slower roller, must interchanged position to ensure
even wearing of the rolls
- most efficient hulling machine
- two rubber rollers of the same diameter are operated at different speeds to remove the
husk from the paddy
- One roller has a fixed position and the other is adjustable to meet the desired clearance
- The adjustable roller rotates slightly slower than the fixed roller
- hulling efficiencies of 85% to 90% with minimum broken or cracked grain
- Disadvantage: Cost to purchase • Cost of rubber rollers

3. Centrifugal type
- type of a huller with rotating blades and utilizes pressure such as Coriolis’ force, frictional
force from the blades, or impact force at collision with the blades and the peripheral surface

Types of Whitening Machines

1. Abrasive Whitening Cone
- For vertical abrasive whitening cone, the average distance between the cone coating
and screen should be 10mm
- Speed should not exceed 13 m/s
2. Friction Whitener
- Screen and roller clearance must be adjusted properly to suit the derived product and
capacity
Types of Rice Milling System
1. Mortar and Pestle
- Method: hand pounding
- Impact and friction acting on and between the paddy kernels dehulls and whitens the
grain simultaneously
- Practiced in remote and rural areas

2. Kiskisan or One-pass Mill or Engelberg Rice Mill

- The pressure and friction simultaneously dehulls and whitens the grains
- General Specs:
o Input capacity – 86 – 687 kg/hr
o 15 – 80 cav/8-hr
o Total Milling Recovery – 59 – 65%
o Head Rice (%) – 38.3 – 64.5  lower milling recovery

3. Cono Rice Mill (Conventional System)

- More efficient than Kiskisan and consists basically of under runner disc huller together
with cone polishers
- Normally for commercial milling
- General Specs:
o Capacity – 100 – 250 cav/12-hr
o Higher Milling Recovery – 68% by weight
o Higher head rice recovery
 4. Modern Rice Mill (Rubber Roll Type)
- Huller consists of two closely spaced rubber rollers rotating in opposite directions at
different speeds
- General Specs:
o Higher milling recovery and milling quality compared to Cono and Engelberg mills
o Total Milling Recovery – 65 - 71%
o Head rice recovery – 70 – 75%
o Hulling Efficiency – 80%

EQUATIONS IN MILLING

Milling recovery - percentage of milled rice (including brokens) obtained from a sample of paddy

𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒

1. 𝑀𝐼𝐿𝐿𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝑅𝐸𝐶𝑂𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑌 = 𝑥 100%
𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑦

𝑛
2. 𝐶𝑂𝐸𝐹𝐹𝐼𝐶𝐼𝐸𝑁𝑇 𝑂𝐹 𝐻𝑈𝐿𝐿𝐼𝑁𝐺 (𝑒𝑛) = 1 − 100
𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑦
Where 𝑛 = 𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑥𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑦+𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑥 100

𝑤𝑠
3. 𝐶𝑂𝐸𝐹𝐹𝐼𝐶𝐼𝐸𝑁𝑇 𝑂𝐹 𝑊𝐻𝑂𝐿𝐸𝑁𝐸𝑆𝑆 𝑂𝐹 𝐾𝐸𝑅𝑁𝐸𝐿𝑆 (𝑒𝑊𝐾 ) = 𝑡𝑠
where ws = wt. of whole brown rice in sample
ts= wt. of total brown rice

4. 𝐻𝑈𝐿𝐿𝐸𝑅 𝐸𝐹𝐹𝐼𝐶𝐼𝐸𝑁𝐶𝑌 (𝐸𝑛) = 𝑒𝑛 𝑥 𝑒𝑊𝐾

Milling degree - a measure of the percent bran removed from the brown rice kernel

𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 −𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒

5. 𝑀𝐼𝐿𝐿𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝐷𝐸𝐺𝑅𝐸𝐸 =
𝑤𝑡. 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒

Milled rice - rice after milling which includes removing all or part of the bran and germ from the
husked rice

Head rice - milled rice with length greater or equal to three quarters of the average length of the
whole kernel

Paddy or rough rice - similar term for paddy, or rice retaining its husk after threshing

Brown rice or husked rice - paddy from which the husk has been removed

Head rice recovery - percentage of head rice (excluding brokens) obtained from a sample of paddy
Factors affecting milling recovery and rice quality

A. GRAIN FACTORS
1.Moisture content
- milling recovery is inversely proportional to moisture content
- Paddy at 12% MC has higher M.R. than at 18%
2. Purity
- Presence of foreign matter (seeds, chaffs) decreases M.R. and quality
3. Cracked grains
- cracked grains easily break during milling and further breakage during whitening
4. Varietal characteristics
- different varieties of rice have different proportions of husks in the kernel
- short grains (Japonica) have husk content as low as 15%
- long grains (Indica) have husk content as high as 23%
5. Immature grains
- immature grains have high proportion of husks in the kernel
- husk content of immature paddy go as high as 40%

B. MACHINE FACTORS
1. Types of machines
- some milling machines are more efficient than others
2. Condition of machines
- old and worn-out machines become inefficient and ineffective
3. Types of milling system
- simple milling systems do not handle the grains gently causing breakage to occur
- complicated milling systems do process the grain in a gentle step-by-step manner

C. OPERATIONAL FACTORS
1. Skill and attitude of the operators
- skilled mill operator would adjust the machine clearances and openings to effect an
efficient operation
2. Mode of payment in milling fee
a) Custom Milling
i. Payment in cash
- fee is based on weight input
- mill operator does not care so much of the quality and quantity
ii. Payment in kind
- operator would see to it that max. recovery is attained if payment is milled rice
- if payment is the by-product (bran), the operator would maximize the amount
of bran resulting in low rice recovery