INFLUENCE OF PROCESSING METHODS ON THE GEL LENGTH OF PARBOILED RICE

A rapid test to indicate the texture of parboiled rice without cooking has recently. been developed. In this test, a gel is developed in rice flour by reacting it with standard alkali. The influence of parboiling methods on the gel length was studied. Different varieties of paddy was parboiled by single steaming, double steaming, warm soaking. hot soaking and pressure parboiling methods. After drying, milling and powdering the samples under identical conditions, the gel was developed. The EMC-S of the milled rice was also determined. The gel length was significantly influenced by the parboiling methods. Both the gel length and EMC-S values were significantly more for parboiled. than for raw samples. Among parboiled lots, the samples prepared by single steaming. had significantly a low value for both the gel length and EMC-S values and the pressure parboiled samples had significantly a high value. Other samples had inter- mediate values but showed an increase with the increase in heat treatment given. during parboiling process.