Accepted Manuscript

Influence of infrared drying on storage characteristics of brown rice

Chao Ding, Ragab Khir, Zhongli Pan, Delilah F. Wood, Chandrasekar

Venkitasamy, Kang Tu, Hamed El-Mashad, Jose Berrios

PII: S0308-8146(18)30837-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.05.042
Reference: FOCH 22875

To appear in: Food Chemistry

Received Date: 25 July 2017

Revised Date: 26 April 2018
Accepted Date: 7 May 2018

Please cite this article as: Ding, C., Khir, R., Pan, Z., Wood, D.F., Venkitasamy, C., Tu, K., El-Mashad, H.,
Berrios, J., Influence of infrared drying on storage characteristics of brown rice, Food Chemistry (2018), doi:
https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.05.042

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 Influence of infrared drying on storage characteristics of brown rice

Chao Dinga, Ragab Khirb,c, Zhongli Panb,d* , Delilah F  Woodd, Chandrasekar Venkitasamyb, Kang Tue, Hamed El-Mashadb,f, Jose
Berriosd
a
College of Food Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Key Laboratory
of Grains and Oils Quality Control and Processing, Nanjing University of Finance and Economies, No.3 Wenyuan road, Nanjing,
Jiangsu 210023, China
b
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616,
USA
c
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
d
Healthy Processed Foods Research Unit, USDA-ARS-WRRC, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA
e
College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, No.1 Weigang Street, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China
f
Department of Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Daqahlia, Egypt

* Corresponding author: Zhongli Pan, Healthy Processed Foods Research Unit, USDA-ARS-WRRC, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany,
CA 94710, USA
Tel.: +1-510-559-5861; Fax: +1-510-559-5851
E-mail address: Zhongli.Pan@ars.usda.gov or zlpan@ucdavis.edu

1
1. Introduction

Brown rice (dehulled without milling) is considered as healthy food because it is rich in minerals, oils, vitamins and dietary fiber

(Juliano 1985). Moreover, brown rice has the bran and germ layer intact which make it a nutty flavor and rich texture. Consequently,

considerable amount of rice is stored in brown rice form in many countries. The increasing demand of brown rice requires that it

should be safely stored for an extended period without losing its quality. Compared to rough rice, storing brown rice saves a

significant space and is more convenient to be supplied and used during emergencies. Nevertheless, due to the absence of rice hull,

when the bran layer of brown rice is exposed to the exterior environment, the quality of brown rice can be easily deteriorated,

shortening its shelf life. The enzymatic activity may increase and cause the acceleration of lipid degradation during storage, which

also reduces the sensory quality of rice. The drying and storage processes are the most important post-harvest operations that

influence the physicochemical properties of brown rice and further affect its quality and functionality.

Jaisut et al. (2009) reported that high air temperature during fluidized-bed drying (130 and 150 °C) plus tempering could

significantly increase the hardness of cooked or thermally treated brown rice compared to that of the conventionally aged brown rice.

In addition, free fatty acids (FFA) content of the thermally treated brown rice was found to increase slightly during storage while the

glycemic index was reduced from high to low-medium level. Fan et al. (1999) found that the temperature of hot air used for drying

2
determined the gelatinization characteristics of rice. During heating process, the molecular order within the starch granule might be

disrupted (Tester and Morrison, 1990). The thermal and pasting properties of rice could also be affected by different drying conditions.

The peak and breakdown viscosity of rice were decreased with the increase in drying temperature (Wiset et al., 2005).

Additionally, numerous changes in color, thermal properties, pasting properties and microstructure occurred during storage, which

affected the nutrition, appearance, and cooking and eating qualities of rice (Kaminski et al., 2013). Zhou et al. (2003) investigated the

pasting characteristics of protease treated defatted rice flour made from aged rice (16 months of storage) and found that the pasting

characteristics had the strongest correlation to protein content of rice flour during storage. It was also proposed that the alteration in

rheological properties of aged rice flour might be primarily attributed to the changes in rice protein component (Teo et al., 2000).

Therefore, to decrease the deterioration of brown rice during storage and better maintain its quality, brown rice is usually stored under

15 °C, or in heat-sealed cans and vacuum bags. The low temperature and suitable packaging methods could reduce the changes in

FFA concentration and odor of stored brown rice. However, the costs of energy consumption, packaging materials and equipment

increase the price of brown rice that indirectly reduces the demand from consumers. To meet the needs of brown rice consumer

market, novel low-cost methods should be developed to improve storage stability of brown rice.

Infrared radiation (IR) heating has shown a promising potential to be used as an effective method to improve stability of

physicochemical properties of brown rice during storage. IR heating could improve the functional properties, water hydration capacity

3
and pasting characteristics of flour prepared from the legume seeds when compared to untreated legume seeds (Fasina et al., 2001).

Previous studies evidenced that the IR heating of rice followed by tempering and natural cooling had higher heating rate, moisture

diffusivity and moisture removal rate of rice compared to convective drying (Ding et al., 2015a). Simultaneously, an effective

disinfestation and disinfection rates corresponding to good milling and sensory qualities of rice were achieved (Pan et al., 2008 and

2011; Khir et al., 2011 and 2014). IR heating could be used to inactivate the lipase enzyme and stabilize brown rice under accelerated

storage conditions (Ding et al., 2015a). The results showed that IR drying could be used as an effective method for improving storage

stability of brown rice without refrigeration, which could also reduce energy consumption and save space in rice storage. However, the

effect of IR drying process on the germination capacity and physicochemical characteristics related with functionality and sensory

quality of brown rice during storage has not been well investigated. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to investigate

the effect of IR drying on the germination capacity and physicochemical properties including the changes in color, microstructure,

gelatinization, pasting, cooking and textural properties of brown rice during storage and to compare the quality characteristics of

brown rice stored after drying with IR, hot air, and ambient air methods.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Drying and Storage Procedures

4
Due to the consistent yields and very high-quality, variety M206 medium grain rice is widely cultivated in California. Therefore, the

M206 rice was used for conducting the tests. The rough rice was harvested by John Deer model 9870 with conventional header D60-S

from the farm located at Yuba County in November 2013, and then was directly transported to Farmers’ Rice Cooperative, West

Sacramento, California. The yield of rough rice was 20.70 tons per hectare and the rice moisture content was 25.03±0.01% in dry

basis. More than 500 kg of rough rice was obtained from rice processing plant. Then, each batch of 20 kg of rice samples were

randomly selected for the following IR drying (IRD), hot air drying (HAD) and ambient air drying (AAD).

The detailed information of drying procedures of IRD, HAD, and AAD was reported in the previous published papers (Ding et al.

2015b). A laboratory-scale catalytic IR dryer was used for this study (developed by Food Processing Laboratory in University of

California, Davis). The first portion of rice was heated from ambient (20 °C) temperature to 60 °C within 58 s as a single layer with

loading density of 2.06 kg/m2 under IR radiation of 4685 W/m2. Then the rice was tempered for 4 h at 60 °C and naturally cooled for

30 min. After IR heating, tempering and natural cooling the moisture content of rice reached to 21.66±0.05%. After 6 h of ambient air

ventilation, the moisture content of rice was further reduced to final MC of 15.92±0.05% by forced ambient air with temperature of

22±1 °C and relative humidity of 43±2%. To investigate the effect of IR on quality of rice and determine whether IR could be applied

for rice drying, the commercial HAD process that is widely used in rice industry was conducted for comparison study. The second

portion was dried by HAD for three passes. Each pass of HAD included 20 mins of HAD at 43 °C followed with 4 h of tempering at

5
same temperature. After hot air heating, the rice moisture content reached 16.15±0.09%. The last portion was dried with ambient air

till the rice moisture reached the same target drying moisture content of 16.13±0.12%. For HAD and AAD, a convective dryer with 25

circular openings that made from a wooden box was used for study. The dimensions of the wooden box were 1.52 m (length) × 1.22

m (width) × 0.56 m (height). One and half kilograms of rice samples were placed in each cylindrical cardboard containers with a

diameter of 17.0 cm and height of 17.5 cm. The bottom of each container was fine metallic sieve for ventilation through the rice layer.

The air velocities of HAD and AAD were both set at 0.10±0.01 m/s (Solomat MPM500, UK). The moisture content of samples was

measured using standard air oven method by heating the rice samples at 130 °C for 24 h (ASAE standards, 1995).

The dried rice sample was dehulled to produce brown rice using FC-2K rice husker (Yamamoto, Japan). Since this research focuses

on brown rice, the brown rice samples were stored in incubators at temperature of 35.0±1.0 °C with a relative humidity of 65.0±3.0%

which was the equilibrium relative humidity of rice with a moisture content of 16.0% (d.b.) at 35 °C (Choi, 2012). Samples of the

brown rice were collected after 0, 1, 2, 4, 7 and 10 months of storage for determining the changes in the indices of storage

characteristics. The stored brown rice samples were milled with VP-222N Rice Mill (Yamamoto Co. Ltd., Japan) to produce the well-

milled rice as defined by Federal Grain Inspection Service (1994) for investigation of the color, microstructure, cooking and textural

characteristics following the procedures presented by Pan et al. (2011).

2.2. Determination of Storage Characteristics

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2.2.1. Germination Capacity Measurement

Germination capacity of brown rice was determined following the Rules for Testing Seeds of the Association of Official Seed

Analysis (1990). Energy of germination (GE) and germination rate (GR) were used to evaluate the germination capacity of brown rice

kernels. GE shows the germinating speed and uniformity while the GR reveals the percentage of the germinated rice in the total. To

determine the GE and GR of brown rice, the prepared brown rice samples were soaked in distilled water at 30 °C for 24 h. Then, 100

kernels were selected and sown in a 15 cm petri dish with 2 layers of filter paper in incubator at 30 °C. Four replicates were conducted

for each sample. The number of germinated seeds was recorded at 5th day and 10th day. Then, GE and GR were calculated using Eqs.

(1) and (2):

number of seeds germinated (of 5𝑡ℎ day)

𝐺𝐸 = number of seeds in total × 100% (1)

number of seeds germinated (of 10𝑡ℎ day)

𝐺𝑅 = number of seeds in total × 100% (2)

2.2.2. Color Measurement

To determine color characteristics of brown rice during different storage times, samples of 80 g each of milled rice were placed in a 10

cm diameter petri dish to a thickness of 1 cm. The color measurement followed the method presented by Ding et al. (2016). The color

7
of the samples was measured at five randomly selected places in the petri dish with a CR-400 Chroma meter (Konica Minolta Sensing

Inc., Tokyo, Japan) and described in the L* a* b* color space indices (1976, International Commission of Illumination, CIE). The L*

values measured by Chroma meter range from 0 to 100 and represent the brightness from black to white; the a* values range from -∞

to +∞ and indicate the degree of redness and greenness, respectively; and the b* values range from -∞ to +∞ which indicate the degree

of yellowness and blueness, respectively. Since, rice may become yellow with an increase in storage time, the yellowness index (YI)

was used to describe the changes in color of the stored brown rice. The YI was calculated using Eq. (3) as shown below (Favati et al.,

2007):

𝑌𝐼 = 142.86 × 𝑏*/𝐿* (3)

2.2.3. Microstructure Observation

The microstructure images of the white rice kernels milled from the brown rice that stored for 0 and 10 months were observed

according to the method presented by Ding et al. (2015b). A DM4000B compound light microscope (Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar,

Germany) was used for observation. For each test, rice samples of 20 g each were randomly selected and stored in fixative for 24 h at

4 °C. The fixative was consisted of 2% formaldehyde, 2.5% glutaraldehyde, 2.5 mM calcium chloride (CaCl2) in 0.1M sodium

cacodylate with a pH of 6.9. The rice kernels were rinsed for three times using 0.1M sodium cacodylate at a pH of 6.9, dehydrated in

8
graded ethanol/butanol series, and infiltrated in a refrigerator to form plastic molds. The obtained molds embedded with rice kernels

were transversely sectioned to 2 μm slices by using a rotary microtome. The slices were then stained using periodic acid Schiff’s

(PAS) reagent and amido black B (ABB), respectively, to display the starch components in pink or red, and the protein components in

blue. The transversed microscopies of the rice kernels were saved for further observation.

2.2.4. Determination of Thermal and Pasting Characteristics

To avoid the effect of different percentage of starch damage on thermal and pasting characteristics of rice flour, the average

particle size of rice flour should be maintained in the same level (Hasjim, Li, & Dhital, 2013; Asmeda, Noorlaila, & Norziah.,

2016),.

Therefore, a UDY cyclone mill (Tecator, Inc., Boulder, CO, USA) was used for grounding the well-milled rice samples. The particles

exiting the mill were small and relatively consistent in size, which was suitable for measuring the thermal and pasting characteristics.

The rice flour that passed through 0.25 mm mesh sieve (78.1±1.3% of the total rice flour) was collected for the following

measurements.

The thermal characteristics of rice flour obtained from brown rice were investigated by a modified measurement method (Riva,

Fessas, & Schiraldi, 2000). A differential scanning calorimeter with two furnaces (Perkin Elmer DSC 8000, Perkin Elmer, Covina, CA,

USA) was used for the measurement. Milled rice flour sample of 6.0±0.1 mg was placed into a high-pressure pan and distilled water

9
was added to achieve a water-to-solid ratio (d.b.) of 2.5:1. The pan was sealed and stored at 4 °C for 24 h to achieve the equilibrium

state. Then the pan with rice flour sample was placed in one of the furnaces for determination of the gelatinization temperature and

enthalpy. Simultaneously, another sealed empty pan was placed in the other furnace as reference for balancing the heat capacity.

During the scanning process, the thermogram was obtained by scanning the two pans from 10 °C to 95 °C at 7 °C/min with purging

using dry nitrogen at a flow rate of 20.0 mL/min. The measurements were conducted in triplicates. The gelatinization of rice flour was

shown as a peak curve of endothermic heat flow with scanning temperature in the thermogram. The onset, peak and conclusion

temperatures of the peak curve were described as To, Tp and Tc, respectively. The temperature difference between Tc and To,

representing the range of gelatinization temperature, was described with Wp. In addition, the enthalpy of the gelatinization was

calculated as ΔH.

The pasting characteristics of milled rice flour were measured according to the modified method presented by Baxter et al. (2004)

by using a Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA, Newport Scientific Ltd., Narrabeen, Australia). Milled rice flour sample of 3.500±0.001 g

was added in a RVA sample canister with 25.00±0.01 mL of HPLC grade water and swirled vigorously to obtain a uniform mixture.

The mixture was tested using the following temperature program: 2 min of holding at 25 °C; heating to 95 °C at 14 °C/min and

holding for 3 min; cooling to 50 °C at 15 °C/min; holding at 50 °C for 2 min. During the test, the mixture was swirled by the paddle

with rotating speed of 960 rpm/s for the first 10 s and then 160 rpm/s till the end. Each sample was measured in triplicates and their

viscogram

10
profiles were recorded automatically with continuous temperature program. The pasting characteristic of rice flour is shown as a peak

and an uptrend curve of viscosity with heating time. The highest viscosity and the least viscosity during heating and the viscosity at

the end of the temperature program were represented by the peak viscosity (PV), hold viscosity (HV) and final viscosity (FV),

respectively. Moreover, the difference between PV and HV, FV and HV were described as breakdown viscosity (BDV) and setback

viscosity (SBV), respectively.

2.2.5. Detection of Cooking and Textural Characteristics

The cooking characteristics of white rice samples produced from brown were described by water uptake (WUR) and volume

expansion (VER) ratios, and solid loss percentage (SLP). To determine the cooking characteristics, a sample of 2 g of unbroken

white rice kernels was soaked for 30 min with 30 mL distilled water in sealed aluminum container. The container with soaked rice

was transferred to boiling water and cooked for 20 min. The WUR, VER and SLP were calculated by using the equations (2-4) from

Ding et al. (2015b).

The texture of cooked milled rice was measured in triplicates by using TA-XT plus Texture analyzer (Texture technologies Corp.,

Scarsdale, USA) with a TA-4 cylinder probe (38-mm diameter). Texture profile analysis (TPA) mode was used to obtain the texture

profiles of cooked rice samples. The initial height between the bottom surface of detecting probe and the platform was set to 15 cm.

11
Three fully cooked rice kernels were placed at the center position of the platform and the probe was set to move at a speed of 0.5

mm/s. The hardness and adhesiveness data were calculated with texture analyzer software at the end of the test.

2.3. Statistical Analysis

The obtained data were analyzed with multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). Tukey post hoc multiple comparisons tests were

applied to determine the significance difference among data of germination capacity, color, thermal, pasting and textural

characteristics of the different samples. The statistical analysis was carried out using PASW 18.0 at 95% confidence level (IBM SPSS

Statistics, Chicago, IL, USA).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Moisture Removal and Milling Quality of Rough Rice

After 58 s of IRD, the rough rice was heated from 20 °C to 60 °C with a corresponding moisture removal of 2.17 percentage points.

During the natural cooling process, additional 1.20 percentage points of moisture were removed without any additional energy input.

Then, the rice moisture content was reduced to 15.92±0.05% after 6 h of ambient air ventilation. The HAD and AAD took 13 h (three

drying passes) and 18 h to remove the similar moisture content, respectively. The results revealed that the drying efficiency of IRD

12
was significant higher than HAD and AAD (p<0.05). Head rice yields of the rice dried by IRD, HAD, and AAD were 57.94±1.93,

57.78±1.23, and 56.07±1.40%, respectively, indicating that IRD did not show any negative impact on milling quality of dried rice

samples. The detailed information of moisture removal and milling quality changes in rough rice were published in previous

publication (Ding et al. 2015a).

3.2. Germination Capacity of Brown Rice

To investigate the effect of IR on the germination capacity of brown rice, energy of germination (GE) and germination rate (GR)

were evaluated. The changes in GE and GR of the rice dried by IRD, HAD and AAD are shown in Fig.1. The GE and GR of the

husked brown rice that dried by IRD were 91.3±0.6% and 92.7±0.9%, without significant differences compared to the rice dried by

HAD and AAD (p>0.05). During storage, GE and GR of all samples decreased. The decreases in GE and GR were not significant in

the first month of storage (p>0.5). After 2 months storage, GE of the samples dried by IRD, HAD and AAD dropped to 50.3±6.4%,

51.3±3.1% and 50.3±4.2%. Comparatively, corresponding GR were 81.3±1.5%, 88.7±0.7%, and 90.3±0.9%. The increment between

GE and GR revealed that 30 - 40% of the rice germination capacity was affected and not strong as the samples before storage. The

accelerated storage condition may be resulted in many chemical or biological changes on rice and delay the germination of rice

kernels. After 4 months of storage, few kernels of all samples could be germinated. The other of the samples could not endure the

13
severe environment further and then lost their vigor. For the rice samples stored for 7 and 10 months, no rice kernel was germinated

means that all samples lose the ability of germination.

3.3. Color Characteristics

Results showed that drying method had significant effect on the whiteness of milled rice produced from brown rice stored for times

(p<0.05). Beside the L*, a* and b* values, the YI values that indicate the relative yellowness (b*) at the same lightness (L*) of samples

were used to describe the color change in stored brown rice (Fig. 2). The L* value of the rice dried using IRD was 68.39±0.44, which

is similar to that of HAD dried rice (68.79±1.11). Whereas, the L* value of the rice dried with AAD (66.89 ± 0.28) was significantly

lower than that of the IRD dried rice (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in the values of a*, b* and YI among the three

drying methods (p>0.05). During the storage of brown rice, the L* values decreased and the b* values increased over the storage time,

while the a* values of the stored brown rice samples were relatively stable. Therefore, as positively correlated with b*/L*, the YI of the

brown rice showed an increasing trend during storage regardless of drying methods. During first 4 months of storage, the YI values of

all the rice samples dried with IRD, HAD and AAD slightly increased. The YI values of the rice dried with IRD increased by a value

of 3.11 which was equal to 52.1% of the increase in YI of AAD dried rice. However, after 10 months of storage, the YI values of the

samples dried with IRD, HAD and AAD were in the same range (35.68±0.20, 35.01±0.65 and 36.61±1.22) with no significant

differences (p>0.05).

14
 The results revealed that the IRD method increased the brightness of rice without significant changes in yellowness (p>0.05).

Moreover, the IRD also reduced the changes in color of the stored brown rice during the first four months of storage compared to

AAD. It was founded that higher temperature could result in gelatinization of starch, collapse of the starch granules, and consequently

produce a transparent layer in rice surface and make it to be glossier (Jamradloedluk et al., 2007). Due to high temperature and the

short time of heating, the IRD and HAD might decrease the activity of enzymes which reduced the enzymatic browning effect, and

weakened the non-enzymatic browning reaction. Those might be the reasons for the high whiteness values of IRD and HAD dried rice

compared to the AAD dried rice. Jaiboon et al. (2009) proposed that the fluidized bed drying for rough rice at 90 °C increased the

whiteness of rice as compared with that of rice dried using shade drying. Therefore, compared with AAD, IRD drying could improve

the stability of color characteristics during brown rice storage.

The changes in yellowing of the brown rice during storage might be contributed by many physical and chemical factors. The

increase of b* value of stored rice could be attributed to the lipid oxidation and Maillard reaction (Park et al., 2012). Color leaching

might also have increased the YI of rice under accelerated storage conditions (Lamberts et al., 2006). The pigments with yellow color

present in rice hull and bran might have penetrated inside endosperm during storage resulting in the yellowing of milled rice (Oh et al.,

2007). Moreover, with the increase of storage time, the structure of rice kernels might be hardened, leading to the insufficient removal

of the bran layer under same milling process which might have increased the YI values of milled rice (Pan et al. 2005) due to the

15
presence of bran layer. The YI values obtained from this study were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those previously reported of

stored milled rice and significantly lower (p<0.05) than those of stored rough rice after the same storage period (Ding et al., 2015b).

The results indicated that the difference between the YI values might be mainly due to the presence of rice bran layer and the absence

of rice hull. Compared with stored milled rice, the higher degree of yellowing of milled rice from stored brown rice might be

contributed by several factors such as the oxidation, Maillard reaction, color leaching and the changes in milling degree (Ding et al.,

2016). Differently, for stored rough rice, the main yellow pigments in rice hull, like the flavonoids, could transfer through bran to the

surface of milled rice and increase the YI of milled rice produced form brown rice.

3.4. Microstructure

The light transverse micrographs of the rice kernels milled from the brown rice were obtained at 0 month and 10th month of storage

(Fig. 3). Compared with the rice samples dried by HAD and AAD, it was observed from the micrographs that less changes in the rice

kernels before and after storage (Fig. 3 a1 and a2) for the rice dried by IRD method. The starch and protein cells close to the surface of

rice kernels could be annealed and denatured by the high temperature during IRD and tempering process. These changes might have

contributed to the more stable structure of IRD rice than that with HAD and AAD methods. In addition, it was seen that the cell walls

of the rice samples stored for 10 months were obscure than the rice without storage. These changes in cell walls might be due to the

alteration in phenolic and phosphatide compounds. The phenolic compounds could be degraded into free phenolic acids while the

16
phosphatides could be attacked by some lipoxidase and alkaline lipase, which could have destroyed the cross linkage structure in cell

walls during storage (Zhou et al., 2002b).

3.5. Thermal and Pasting Characteristics

The effects of drying methods and storage durations on the onset (To), peak (Tp), conclusion (Tc), range of gelatinization temperature

(Wp) and the gelatinization enthalpy of rice flour produced form brown rice stored for different durations are shown in Table 1. It can

be seen that the To, Tc, Wp and ΔH values of the rice from IRD were slightly lower than those of the rice from HAD and AAD. After 4

months of storage, the rice samples dried by IRD presented significantly lower thermal characters than the rice samples dried by HAD

and AAD (p<0.05). For the whole storage period, the To, Tp, Tc, Wp and ΔH of the stored brown rice congruously increased in the first

4 or 7 months and then slightly decreased which is on par with the results obtained by Fan and Marks (1999) for the rough rice stored

at 38 °C for 16 months.

The slightly lower values of gelatinization characteristics of the rice from IRD might be due to the effect of high temperature on

starch granules located on the outer layer of rice. For IRD method, the rice temperature after heating and during the tempering process

(60 °C) was between the glass transition and the gelatinization temperature of rice (Cnossen and Siebenmorgen, 2000). This high

temperature in combination with the high initial moisture content of rice (25.0%) might have favored the annealing of the starch

17
granules located in outer layer of rice kernels and in turn altered the thermal and pasting properties of starch. Fan et al. (1999)

investigated the effects of high drying air temperature (54.3 °C with a relative humidity of 21.9% for 45 min) on gelatinization

characteristics of rice and concluded that the high temperature caused a slight decrease of the To, Tc and ΔH values. The formation of

condensed structure of amylose and amylopectin during storage increased the energy required for breaking the connection of the

structure to release the amorphous intermicellar regions, which consequently increased the ΔH value.

The pasting characteristics of the rice flour milled from stored brown rice samples of three drying methods are shown in Table 1.

Compared with AAD, IRD and HAD slightly (p > 0.05) decreased the peak (PV) and final viscosity (FV) of rice flour. The BDV

and SBV of all samples were also in the same range. The high temperature and the radiation effects during IRD combined with high

moisture content might have favored the annealing process of rice starch which consequently affected the structure of starch granules

and pasting properties of rice flour. The lower PV and FV of the rice dried with IRD than those dried with AAD indicated that the

swelling and retrogradation ability of the starch granules were decreased by IRD (Shimelis et al., 2006). However, the penetration

ability of IR is limited in organic materials, which restricted its influence on the starch granules located at the interior of rice kernels.

The ANOVA analysis of viscosity data showed that the storage duration had a significant influence on the pasting characteristics

of all the rice samples dried by IRD, HAD and AAD (p<0.05). The PV and FV of the stored brown rice samples were increased to the

peak value after 4 months of storage and then they were fluctuating over the rest of the storage period. The increase of PV reflected

18
the strengthening of association abilities of the starch molecules during the heating. Similarly, the corresponding increase of FV

showed that the retrogradation ability of rice starch was increased in the cooling period. The BDV reached the peak value within 2

months of storage and then decreased over the storage time. The final values of BDV after 10 months of storage were higher than

those determined before storage. Additionally, the samples from IRD had higher BDV than those from HAD and AAD. The

fluctuation in BDV during storage indicated that the resistance to heating and shear stress of starch granules were not stable during

storage. The steadily increasing of SBV during the storage period revealed that the retrogradation ability of starch granules kept

decreasing. The amount and molecular weight of the amylose leached from the granules and gelatinized starch remnants might also

have contributed to the high SBV of stored rice (Park et al., 2012).

The obtined results showed that the stroage duration had more significant influence on the thermal and pasting characteristics of

brwon rice than the drying methods (p<0.05). It has been reported that many components were involved in the rearrangement of the

peptides, resulting to the increase of the average molecular weight of the oryzenin, which caused the more compactly distributed

structure during storage (Chrastil and Zarins, 1992). Under high temperature, proteins acted as an encase to the starch granules and

regulated their swelling and resistance to shear force. Guo et al. (2012) studied the associations between protein and starches during

storage and reported that the association between globulins molecules was strengthened while the association between glutelin and

starch was weakened during storage. The strengthening of linkages in protein could lead to increase in the swelling capacity of starch

19
granules during heating. Therefore, the changes in functionalities of rice were mainly determined by the alteration in starches and

proteins during storage.

The ten months of storage period could be separated into two stages: first four months and after four months of storage. During the

first four months of storage, the disulphide bridges of oryzenin and protein networks were decreased, leading to the reduction of

starch-protein interactions and the swelling ability of starch granules (Teo et al., 2000), which consequently increased the ΔH and PV

values. With the increase in degree of swelling, the resistances of the starch granules to shear force was simultaneously decreased and

the BDV was increased. After 4 months of storage, the protein networks were further strengthened and retarded the water absorption

properties of starch granules, causing the increase of ΔH value and decrease of PV value with storage period. The increased amount of

disulphide bridges in oryzenin during storage strengthened the linkages of the proteins and increased the gelatinization temperature. It

also enhanced the formation ability of the protein-rich and starch-rich domains/regions during the cooling cycle in RVA investigation

and increased the FV and SBV values during storage.

3.6. Cooking and Textural Characteristics

The influence of drying methods and storage duration on the water uptake ratio (WUR), volume expansion ratio (VER) and solid loss

percentage (SLP) of the milled rice samples produced form brown rice are shown in Fig.4. The cooking characteristics of the rice

dried with IR showed no significant difference (p>0.05) from that with HAD and AAD. The WUR and VER of rice samples dried by

20
three drying methods slightly increased in the first four months, followed by a considerable increase till seventh month and ending up

with a slight decrease between seventh and ten months of storage period. After 4 months of storage, the WUR of rice from IRD and

HAD increased by 22.9 and 24.1 percentage points, respectively, which were 41.0% and 37.9%, respectively, lower than the increase

in those values for rice dried with AAD (38.8 percentage points). Simultaneously, IRD and HAD reduced the increase in VER by 36.6%

and 6.6% that compared with AAD. It can be seen that the IRD maintained the WUR and VER of the stored rice during cooking in the

first 4 months of storage than AAD. The SLP (Fig. 4c) of all rice samples from IRD, HAD and AAD decreased consistently with the

increase in storage period.

The water-holding capacity and the volume of starch granules were increased during storage because of the strengthening of the

connections in starches and the network in proteins. However, the consistent strengthening in the network of proteins might also

have increased the resistance of water absorption. Therefore, the WUR and VER values reached the highest level (at 7th month) and

then decreased with the strengthening of protein structure during the prolonged storage. Due to the stabilization effect of IR heating

on the structure of protein and starches, less changes in water absorption ability of the IRD rice was observed during storage than

AAD rice. Simultaneously, the decrease in SLP might be attributed to hardening effect of microstructure that reduced the leaching of

soluble starch components (Zhou et al., 2003).

The effect of drying methods and storage duration on the texture of the cooked rice is shown in Table 2. There was no significant

difference among the hardness values of the cooked rice samples from IRD, HAD and AAD methods (p>0.05). During the first

four

21
months of storage, the hardness of all cooked rice samples was maintained without significant difference (p>0.05). However, the

hardness was significantly increased during the prolonged storage beyond 4 months.

The adhesiveness of all rice samples was slightly decreased during storage. The adhesiveness of cooked rice samples dried using

IRD and HAD was slightly higher than those dried with AAD. However, the influences of drying methods and storage duration on

adhesiveness were found to be insignificant (p>0.05). Zhou et al. (2002a) reported that the cooked rice prepared from the stored rough

rice became harder and less sticky with increase in storage period. The stability of cell wall structure was weakened by the release of

bound phenolic acids during storage because of the enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. Due to the weakening of cell wall

structure, starch granules or protein networks located in adjacent cells could be easily connected, leading to the formation of

condensed microstructure during storage. The protein-rich regions formed during the storage have higher resistance to water

absorption than starch granules of rice, which might be the reason for the increased in the hardness of cooked rice after storage. In

addition, the condensed structure in protein-rich and starch-rich region might have restricted the leaching of soluble starch and

decreased the adhesiveness of cooked rice after long term of storage.

4. Conclusions

The infrared drying, as a promising drying technology with high heating and drying efficiencies, showed positive effects on the color,

microstructure, cooking, texture gelatinization and pasting characteristics of stored brown rice. There were no significant differences

22
among germination capacities of the rice samples with dried by IRD, HAD and AAD. The L* values of the samples from IRD were

higher than that of samples from AAD. IRD decreased the temperature range and enthalpy of gelatinization, and the peak and

breakdown viscosities of the rice samples. After 4 months of storage, the increase in yellowness index of milled rice from IRD rice

was only 52.1% of the increase in that value from AAD. Moreover, IRD reduced the water uptake and volume expansion ratio of

cooked rice by 41.0% and 37.9% respectively compared with AAD. These changes might be due to the annealing and denaturation

effect of IRD on starches and proteins, and its inhibition effect on the activity of those enzymes related with the microstructure

changes in rice. Therefore, the IRD treatment could be used to improve the quality of brown rice during storage.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the project funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31601402) and the Priority

Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), Farmers’ Rice Cooperative for supplying the

fresh rice samples for this research, and Artur P. Klamczynski, Donald A. Olson, James Pan and Borsen Chou from Western

Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS for providing the experimental instruments and helping for conducting the experiments of

measuring pasting and thermal properties.

23
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Figure legends

Fig. 1 Changes in energy of germination (a) and germination rate (b) of the brown rice dried by infrared (IRD), hot air (HAD) and
ambient air (AAD) drying. The columns with different characters in lowercase mean the values are significantly different (p<0.05).
Fig. 2 Color characteristics of the white rice produced from stored brown rice from infrared drying (IRD), hot air drying (HAD) and
ambient air drying (AAD). The figure a, b, c and d show the a*, b*, L* and yellowness index values of the rice samples, respectively.
Fig. 3 Light microscopies of transverse section of white rice produced from brown rice from infrared drying (IRD), hot air drying
(HAD) and ambient air drying (AAD) at zero and ten months of storage. Graph a1 and a2 are light micrographs of transverse structure
of the white rice kernels milled from the rice dried with IR at month 0 and 10, respectively. Graph b1 and b2, c1 and c2 show the
corresponding microstructure of the rice samples dried with hot air and ambient air at month 0 and 10, respectively. The pink and red
region showed in the photographs represents starch and other carbohydrates while the blue regions are proteins.
Fig. 4 Cooking characteristics of the white rice produced from stored brown rice from infrared drying (IRD), hot air drying (HAD)
and ambient air drying (AAD). The figure a, b and c show the water uptake, volume expansion and solid loss percentage of the
rice samples during storage, respectively.

Table legends

Table 1 Thermal and pasting characteristics of the rice flour produced from the stored brown rice dried with infrared, hot air and
ambient air.
Table 2 Textural characteristics of the cooked white rice milled from stored brown rice dried with infrared, hot air and ambient air.

27
Table 1
Thermal and pasting characteristics of the ric

Storage
Drying
duration
method
(month)
Infrared 0 69.5±0.4a 74.7±0.3 80.0±0.4a 10.5±0.1 9.1±0.5 3607±79a 2034±97ab 2927±35a 1354±136a
1 69.6±0.4a 75.2±0.4 80.4±0.8ab 10.8±0.4 9.0±0.4 4299±66b 2430±101abcd 3376±70bcd 1507±86ab
2 69.9±0.4ab 75.6±0.4 80.8±0.3abc 11.0±0.6 9.1±0.4 4753±52cd 2693±99de 3635±45def 1575±146ab
4 70.4±0.2 ab
75.9±0.4 81.6±0.6 abcde
11.2±0.8 9.3±0.1 5086±153 efg
2806±145 de
4044±129 hij
1765±132ab
7 70.2±0.3ab 76.0±0.3 81.5±0.4abcde 11.3±0.1 9.8±0.4 4750±103c 2747±144de 3807±78fgh 1804±110ab
10 70.2±0.4ab 75.8±0.5 81.4±0.5abcde 11.2±0.9 9.5±0.2 4966±88cdef 2566±94cde 4334±62k 1934±95b
Hot air 0 69.7±0.2a 74.8±0.5 80.4±0.6ab 10.7±0.4 9.3±0.4 3702±28a 1959±116a 3133±28ab 1389±112a
1 69.6±0.4a 75.2±0.4 80.6±0.4ab 11.0±0.7 9.3±0.1 4258±11b 2431±126abcd 3350±46bc 1523±93ab
2 70.0±0.4ab 75.7±0.3 81.2±0.5abcd 11.2±0.8 9.4±0.6 4761±54cd 2749±83de 3530±57cdef 1518±97ab
4 70.5±0.6ab 76.0±0.3 82.0±0.3bcde 11.5±0.3 9.7±0.4 5206±63fg 2697±150de 4231±38ijk 1722±140ab
7 70.8±0.4ab 76.1±0.1 82.3±0.3cde 11.5±0.1 10.1±0.4 4803±93cde 2641±127cde 3979±45ghi 1817±113ab
10 70.6±0.3ab 75.9±0.3 82.0±0.3bcde 11.4±0.6 9.9±0.3 5072±117defg 2601±101cde 4353±57k 1883±124b
Ambient 0 70.0±0.4 ab
74.9±0.4 80.9±0.2 abcd
10.9±0.6 9.4±0.3 3899±52 a
2176±127 abc
3189±175 ab
1466±154ab
air 1 70.0±0.3ab 75.1±0.6 81.2±0.6abcd 11.2±0.3 9.8±0.4 4274±87b 2491±77bcd 3249±57bc 1466±130ab
2 70.4±0.6ab 75.7±0.4 81.7±0.4abcde 11.3±0.3 9.8±0.5 4796±73cde 2820±101de 3480±38cde 1505±94ab
4 70.9±0.3ab 76.1±0.3 82.5±0.3cde 11.6±0.6 10.2±0.7 5314±55g 2985±149e 3975±19ghi 1646±148ab
7 71.4±0.5b 76.2±0.6 83.0±0.3e 11.7±0.8 10.4±0.4 4917±70cdef 2891±138de 3713±38efg 1687±75ab
10 71.1±0.6ab 76.0±0.3 82.6±0.2de 11.5±0.4 10.2±0.4 5219±74fg 2824±106 da 4318±71jk 1923±89b

28
To is the onset temperature, Tp is peak temperature Tc is conclusion temperature and ΔH is the enthalpy of gelatinization.
Values (means ± standard deviation) in each column with different letters are significantly different at p < 0.05. Values (means ± standard deviation) in each
column without letter or followed by same letter are not significantly different at p > 0.05.

29
Table 2
Textural characteristics of the cooked white rice milled from stored brown rice dried with infrared, hot air
and ambient air.

Storage duration
Drying method (month) Hardness (g) Adhesiveness (g·s)
Infrared 0 2154.1±37.4a 26.3±3.8
1 2110.3±51.6a 28.0±2.6
2 2047.0±77.1 a
25.7±1.5
4 2078.6±85.7a 25.3±7.5
7 2651.1±134.1 bc
24.0±6.1
10 2940.9±125.2 c
23.3±3.5
Hot air 0 2228.4±42.9ab 27.0±1.7
1 2047.0±121.3 a
27.7±8.1
2 2217.5±351.1 ab
28.3±4.7
4 2068.9±141.1a 24.3±3.5
7 2733.8±217.1 c
20.7±4.5
10 2930.4±172.5 c
19.3±3.2
Ambient air 0 2094.4±97.2a 23.0±3.6
1 2141.2±190.3 a
23.7±1.5
2 2045.5±114.7 a
23.7±1.2
4 2174.5±104.3 a
22.3±3.8
7 2859.2±142.0c 17.7±4.0
10 2974.1±85.0 c
16.0±3.6
Values (means ± standard deviation) in each column with different letters are significantly different at p <
0.05.

30
 Highlights
Effects of infrared drying on storage characteristics of brown rice was examined.
Infrared drying achieves high efficiency without losing germination capacity of rice.
Infrared drying stabilizes color and microstructure of brown rice during storage.
Infrared drying well maintains thermal and pasting properties of stored brown rice.
Infrared drying reduces changes in cooking and textural properties of stored brown rice.

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