Processing and Parboiling of Rice

Introduction
▲ Rice with the hull on is called paddy or
rough rice. About 20 % of paddy rice is
hull. To obtain edible rice, the husk must be
removed.

▲ The kernel remaining after the hull is

removed, is known brown rice.
▲ Brown rice has a strong flavour and is
indigestible. Furthermore, during the
dehusking process, some of the cells may
be damaged and enzyme (lipo oxygenase)
released that cause rapid oxidation of the
lipid, leading to rancidity.
▲ The bran must, therefore, be polished away
to yield desired white rice. Bran, however,
contains the water soluble B-vitamins.
 Steps of Milling
The milling of rice consists of the following
steps:

▲ Cleaning

▲ Dehusking
 Cleaning
Before passing to the husker, the paddy
should be clean, free from straw, dirt,
stones and metal.

The cleaned rice is then dehulled in a huller.

 Dehusking

Dehulling of rough rice to brown rice can

be carried out either manually or
mechanically.
 Milling
Brown rice is milled in a machine called
pearler to remove coarse outer layers of
bran and germ by a process of rubbing,
resulting in unpolished milled rice.

Most of the breakage of rice occurs in this

milling.
After milling, the loose bran is removed. The
milled rice is then polished.

▲ The term polished rice refers to milled rice

that has gone through polishers that
removed bran adhering to the surface of
milled rice and improve its translucency.
▲ After polishing, the head rice is seperated
from brokens by screening or by disk
seperators.
The products from the rice mill are:
▲ Head rice and Brokens (70 %)
▲ Rice bran (8 %)
▲ Rice polish (2 %)
▲ Hulls (20 %)
 By-Products of Rice
The by-products of rice are-

▲ Rice hulls

▲ Rice bran

▲ Rice polishings
Rice Hulls

▲ Rice hulls are tough, fibrous and abrasive.

▲ They have low nutritive value.

▲ Paddy husk contains ash(20%), cellulose

(30%), pentosans (20%) and lignin (20%)
and small amounts of protein (3%), fat (2%)
and vitamins.
▲ The predominant component (94-96%) of
the ash from paddy husk is silica.

▲ Small amounts of hulls are used as

abrasives and to produce carbon.

▲ Other uses include roughage for animal

feed, insulating material, paper making etc.
Rice Bran

The bran is the outer layer of pericarp from

brown rice.
▲ Bran is normally 8% of brown rice.
▲ Rice bran contains 12% protein and 13 %
fat.
▲ It is also an excellent source of B-vitamins.
▲ If rice bran is stored without inactivation
of lipase, the fat in the bran rapidly
becomes hydrolyzed and oxidized, causing
the bran to become rancid and unpalatable.

▲ Rice bran is a source of oil which is

obtained by the extraction of rice bran with
solvents.
▲ The oil contain a high percentage of
unsaturated fatty acids yet it is quite stable
because of the presence of natural
antioxidents. After refining, rice bran oil is
comparable to other edible oils.
Composition of rice bran & polish

Constituent Bran Polish

Protein 12.0 12.0
Fat 13.0 16.0
Ash 10.0 8.0
Nitrogen free 40.0 56.0
extract
Crude fibre 12.0 7.3
Pentosans 10.0 -
Rice polishing

▲ Polishings are the inner layers, containing

aleurone cells and small amounts of starchy
endosperm.

▲ The amount of polishings vary widely,

depending upon the milling procedure
employed, generally it amounts to 12%.
 Aging of Rice
Storage changes or aging, occur particularly
during the first 3 to 4 months after harvest
and are known as `after harvest ripening`.

▲ Rice milled from freshly harvested paddy

gives pasty and sticky kernels after cooking.
▲ If the paddy is stored under good storage
conditions, within weeks, the milled rice
will cook with less tendency to stick
together.

▲ Storage of milled rice also produces

decreases drier surface and large volumes.
▲ Cooking time becomes longer with
increased storage time.

▲ This is due to high α-amylase content of

fresh rice, which acts on starch in the kernel
but is inactivated during storage.
 Parboiling of Rice
Parboiling consists of three steps-

1.Steeping

2.Steaming

3.Drying
▲ Traditional parboiling process involves soaking
paddy rice overnight or longer in water at
ambient temperature, followed by boiling or
steaming the steeped rice at 1000 C to gelatinize
the starch.

▲ The parboiled rice is then cooked and sun-dried

before storage or milling.
Modern methods

▲ Modern methods involve the use of a hot

water soak at 600 C for a few hours to
reduce the incidence of aflatoxin
contamination during the soaking step.

▲ Leaching of nutrients during soaking

aggravates the contamination, together with
the practice of recycling the soak water.
Advantages of Parboiling paddy

1.Dehusking of parboiled rice is easy and the

grain becomes tougher resulting in reduced
losses during milling.
2.Higher yield of head rice from milling
because kernel is more resistant to
breakage.
3. Milled parboiled rice has resistance to
insects and fungus infection.
4. The nutritive value of rice increases after
parboiling because the water dissolves the
vitamins and minerals present in the hulls
and bran coat and carries them into the
endosperm.
5. The water soluble B-vitamins thiamin,
riboflavin and niacin are higher in milled
parboiled rice than in milled raw rice.

6. Parboiled rice does not turn into a glutinous

mass when cooked.
Disadvantages of Parboiling paddy

There are certain disadvantages of parboiling

also.
▲ The colour change and sometimes, the
unpleasant smell of parboiled rice due to
increased susceptibility to rancidity are not
preferred.
▲ These changes are due to defective
steeping during parboiling.

▲ During steeping, fermentative changes take

place which result in the yellowish colour
and off flavour of rice.
These defects are overcome in modern
methods of parboiling.
Processes Rice Products