Z. Peng, W. He
Mississippi State University,
United States
Keywords: rice grains, fortified, enriched, fortify rice by starch crystalline disruption and recrystallization
Summary:
Rice is a staple food for over half the world’s population and its importance and prominence is especially apparent in developing countries. Amongst all cereal crops, rice nutrition is the poorest in multiple aspects. The nutritious out-layers including the aleurone, sub aleurone layer, germ pericarp, tegmen and nucellus are removed as bran during milling. This means that although the milled rice is proficient in carbohydrates, is subsequently deficient in many macronutrients such as protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and fibers. Although enriched wheat flour can improve the human diet, fortifying rice grains remain a challenge since fortified rice grains usually can’t sustain the washing step during the cooking process, which therefore leads to nutrition loss. This technology aims to bridge the gap between the current nutritional value of rice grains with a more nutritionally dense grain through new fortification methods. These new methods of reconstituting fortified rice grains using only rice products and the desired nutrients without adding other components. At the end of the conducted research, the products maintained the texture, taste, and appearance of rice, which is improved upon the chemical reagents and polymer additives. This method of rice grain reconstitution is accomplished by starch crystalline disruption and recrystallisation.