The Benefits of Eating Parboiled Rice

Most of us know that rice is one of the most consumed foods on this planet and more than 50% of its human population relies on rice as its staple food item. Of the many, amazing varieties of rice used globally, one is parboiled rice. This moniker might fool you into believing that it is a pre-cooked/boiled variety, but that is just not the case.

Most of us know that rice is one of the most consumed foods on this planet and more than 50% of its human population relies on rice as its staple food item. Of the many, amazing varieties of rice used globally, one is parboiled rice. This moniker might fool you into believing that it is a pre-cooked/boiled variety, but that is just not the case. It is just processed differently from other rice varieties and the resultant rice is cooked and served just like other varieties of rice.

As opposed to the most consumed rice variety, i.e. the white rice, which is processed by removing the hull, the parboiled variety retains the hull, and is hydrated and steamed during its processing. This lets the grains retain the nutrition provided by the bran layer. This steaming process causes the vitamins and mineral to migrate from the bran to the rice kernel.

This practice of parboiling rice was widespread in southern India along with a few Southeast Asian countries before it caught favour with the western nations. Let’s now discuss how healthy this parboiled variety of rice is:

Carbohydrates

Parboiled rice has almost double the fiber content than the most consumed white rice. A single cup of parboiled rice is a source of 41 grams of total carbohydrates, which is about a third of our daily carbohydrate requirement. This same amount of parboiled rice satiates 4-6% of our daily fiber need. Moreover, the carbohydrates in this variety do not cause a surge in the blood sugar level due to their low glycemic score of 38, which is more than twice as low as that of white rice.

B Vitamins

The parboiled variety is a rich source of B vitamins, niacin and thiamine. When combined, these vitamins digest the sugar and help convert the carbohydrate into energy. B vitamins in parboiled rice also help you create neurotransmitters and hormones.

Minerals

A cup of parboiled rice provides around 3% of our daily requirement of calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium. Your body also gets about 5-7% of your daily zinc requirement. These help your body in forming the protein structure and regulate DNA. It also saves your immune system from getting impaired.

Folate

Folate or Vitamin B9 helps our body metabolize amino acids and nucleic acid. These are used to make protein and DNA respectively. Parboiled rice serves as an amazing source of folate. Eating parboiled rice ensures that our homocysteine levels stay normal, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. A cup of parboiled rice provides us with more than 200 micrograms of folate, which is slightly more than 50% of our daily requirement.

Parboiled rice is very similar to brown rice. All those familiar with brown rice know that it’s slightly more difficult to digest, as compared to white rice. This is mainly due to the starch not getting broken down so easily. This is, however, not the case with parboiled rice. The starch in this variety is more gelatinized, due to the hydration and steaming process.

To know more about the various such rice varieties and their health implications, make sure you keep following Nextech Agri Solution.

 

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Rice Production: Pre-Planting Activities

This post by Nextech Agri Solutions aims to provide practical knowledge necessary for small-scale farmers entering the rice production business. Beginning with the pre-planting activities, this post will cover the rice varieties to choose from, information on seed quality, crop calendar and land preparation.

This post by Nextech Agri Solutions aims to provide practical knowledge necessary for small-scale farmers entering the rice production business. Beginning with the pre-planting activities, this post will cover the rice varieties to choose from, information on seed quality, crop calendar and land preparation.

These are 4 of the most important activities before the rice planting, and needs to be taken care of if one anticipates a high, prosperous yield.

1. Selecting the rice variety

It’s fairly important to begin with healthy seeds of a locally adapted rice variety. This ensures that the crop has a high yield and attracts good market price, and is also cheaper than importing high-potential varieties from other countries.

Mentioned below are the characteristic features a good rice variety must possess:
– Appreciable cooking characteristics, colour, aroma, taste and shape
– High selling price
– Stability
– Optimum yield over multiple seasons
– High tillering capability for competing against weed
– Tolerance against crop diseases and pests
– Resistance to droughts and floods
– Exact maturity length that matches the growing season

2. Seed quality

The crop quality entirely depends on the seeds sown. Since seeds are the foundation of any crop, it becomes pivotal that one ensures that the seeds utilized are of optimal quality.

Good quality seeds ensure the following benefits:
– Increased uniformity
– Less replanting
– Lower seed rate
– Better emergence (greater than 70%)
– High initial growth
– Increased resistance against pests, insects and diseases
– Decreased weed
– Increased yield

The following factors are used to determine the quality of rice:
– Varietal purity: It involves the percentage of germination, moisture content, weed, other crop seeds, stones and red rice seeds.
– Viability: Germination potential, moisture level and vigour are used to determine the seed viability.

The germination rate is indicative of seed vigor. A swift rate of germination shows that the seed will establish itself well in the field stage. Weaker seeds are easily affected by environmental stress and are known to produce weaker seedlings.
– Moisture Content: As such, moisture content should be less than 14%

3. Crop Calendar

Crop calendar provides for a reliable framework for all the subsequent farming activities.
It provides a clear schedule from seed sowing to storage and allows the farmers to:
– Decide the input purchase
– Prepare a budget for all the activities
– Determine labour, capital and credit requirement
– Prepare land and harvest

Based on local experience and with the help of agricultural promoters, determine the best date to plant. Determine the time it takes for your chosen variety to harvest. Establish the labour and finance requirements at each of the subsequent steps, i.e. plowing, weeding, fertilizing, etc.

4. Land Preparation

This is the final step before we begin with the planting. It is an important step which helps control weeds, recycles plant nutrients and provides for a sustainable surface and soil mass for direct seeding.

As such, land preparation either begins during fallow, i.e. the period wherein a field is left uncultivated so it regains its fertility, or immediately after the previous harvest. Moreover, it usually takes around a month for complete land preparation.

It typically involves 3 different stages which are:
– Clearing the field
– Creating compost from rice residues
– Planting cover crops to enrich soil and suppress weeds

 

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Different Paddy Parboiling Methods in India

Parboiling involves partial cooking of rice paddy, and soaking, gelatinizing, and drying before milling. The main objective of parboiling is to impart hardness to the grain (without hampering the husk) so that the grain can withstand the milling operations.

Parboiling Methods in India involve partial cooking of rice paddy, and soaking, gelatinizing, and drying before milling. The main objective of parboiling is to impart hardness to the grain (without hampering the husk) so that the grain can withstand the milling operations. The paddy is parboiled in the hull to soften the kernel so that the surface starch, bran, and other components can blend. After this, the water from the rice is drained and the rice is dried with steam. The dried rice then undergoes machinery procedures to polish the kernels and remove the hull.

 

There are three different types of Paddy Parboiling methods in India, namely:

  1. Single-staged parboiling system which is meant for small grain and boiled cream-colored rice

  2. Two-staged parboiling system which is meant for small grain, boiled and steamed white-colored rice

  3. Three-staged Parboiling System which is meant for long grain rice like Basmati, etc.

 

A quick synopsis of Paddy Parboiling Methods in India

The raw paddy is first cleaned and then transferred to the soaking tank paddy storage bin. The raw paddy (only if its grain is long or of medium size) is then steamed for two to four minutes which is followed by the moving of processed paddy to the soaking tanks.

 

When the rice is in paddy form, it is soaked in water at an ambient temperature of 20-30°C and takes 36 – 48 hours to reach the requisite moisture content of 30%. On the other hand, if the paddy is soaked at a temperature of 60-65°C (hot water soaking), it reaches the moisture level in a mere two to four hours. One advantage of hot water soaking is that it reduces the steaming time which completes the Parboiling Process, quickly.

 

The smell, color, taste, and solubility of the components of rice depends on the water temperature and the duration for which it is soaked in the water. The timing must also not be too long and the temperature also must not be too high otherwise the components would dissolve in water, the seeds would start germinating, and starch fermentation would occur.

 

 

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Basmati Rice Manufacturing Process

Basmati Rice is a variety of rice, which is particularly grown in the Punjab area of India. Basmati Rice is characteristically longer than other forms of rice. What’s more, it is known to possess a unique aromatic smell. This smell is due to the presence of a chemical compound known as 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.

Basmati Rice is a variety of rice, which is particularly grown in the Punjab area of India. Basmati Rice is characteristically longer than other forms of rice. What’s more, it is known to possess a unique aromatic smell. This smell is due to the presence of a chemical compound known as 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline. Although this chemical compound is found in various types of rice, Basmati Rice comprises 12 times of the compound as compared to other types of rice.

 

Basmati Rice is of Two Types: White Basmati Rice and Brown Basmati Rice. Both types differ in nutritional value and appearance.

 

Basmati Rice Manufacturing Process is similar to that of other rice types. Let us take a look at the Basmati Rice manufacturing process:

 

Harvesting:

When the plants of Basmati Rice ripens in around 3 months, the harvest is ready. The fields can be harvested by hands or by machines, depending upon the size of the operation. Brown Basmati Rice can be obtained just after harvesting, all it needs is some cleaning and hulling.

 

Drying:

Around 20 percent moisture is found in Basmati Rice at the time of harvesting, which must be removed in order to proceed further. The moisture is removed by drying out the harvest. The drying can be done with the help of artificially heated air or by simply utilizing sunshine.

 

Hulling:

Hulling is a process in which the dried rice is rolled on with machines. With the help of rolling action, the hull is loosened and eventually removed from the rice. The hulled grains are separated from unhulled grains by shaking the kernels. The heavier unhulled grains get separated from lighter rice.

 

Milling:

Brown rice is more prone to getting spoiled and this is why brown rice is converted into white rice. Milling includes two-stage hulling in which the bran layer is efficiently removed from the rice. After the removal of the bran layer, rice is further polished to make it look more presentable.

 

Enriching:

The polished rice lacks certain nutrients and vitamins. The polished rice is here replenished with some important nutrients and vitamins to make it more suitable for consumption.

 

Once these stages are finished, we are left with pure eatable rice grains. These grains are then packed into batches and processed for transportation to different retailers. The packing makes sure that the rice does not get spoiled while storing or transportation.

 

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Rice Parts

Rice, as we all know is one of the major crops all around the world. The crop is highly nutritious and can be easily grown in all the corners of the globe. Rice primarily has three edible parts – the germ, the bran and the endosperm. After the process of rice milling, all the rice looks almost the same

Rice, as we all know is one of the major crops all around the world. The crop is highly nutritious and can be easily grown in all corners of the globe. Rice primarily has three edible parts – the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. After the process of rice milling, all the rice looks almost the same( i.e. white in color. But at the time of harvesting, rice is of many different kinds.

Let us have a look:

Long Grain Brown Rice:
Long grain rice, as the name suggests, has a long kernel. This kernel is much longer in length than its width. These grains are light and isolated.

Sweet Brown Rice:
Sweet brown rice is also short and plumy like short grain brown rice. Though these tend to lose their shape upon cooking.

Short Grain Brown Rice:
Short grains are short, round, and the same in length and width. These also get soft on cooking.

Medium Grain Brown Rice:
Medium grain brown rice is wider and shorter in length when compared to long-grain brown rice. Cooked rice gets moist and slight. This type of rice sticks together longer.

Brown Basmati Rice:
Basmati rice is an aromatic form of long grain rice that is heavily consumed across India.

Himalayan Red Rice:
This type of rice is reddish on the outer side with a red bran layer on it. The bran layer adds to the taste of this rice.

There are numerous types of rice harvested in India throughout the country.

 

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Rice And Its Different Types

Rice is one of the most important crops in not only India but the whole world. Countries with huge population like India and China are heavily reliant on rice to feed the insatiable hunger. Rice is easily grown across the globe as it is adaptable to most types of climates.

Rice is one of the most important crops in not only India but the whole world. Countries with huge populations like India and China are heavily reliant on rice to feed the insatiable hunger. Different types of Rice are grown across the globe as it is adaptable to most types of climates. What’s more, rice is an excellent source of carbohydrates which in turn are an excellent source of energy.

Majorly, rice is classified into three types in India i.e. White Rice, Brown Rice and Basmati Rice. Follows an informative categorical description of these types:

White Rice:

White rice is a product of rice milling and polishing, which is why it gets white in the first place. But the polishing and milling remove a good fraction of vitamins and nutrients in from the rice. Hence, this type of rice needs to be treated with certain vitamins and nutrients after the Process of Rice Milling. Once fortified with essential nutrients, white rice is good to go and is quite beneficial to health.

White Rice is good for health in the following ways:

  1. It is a good source of protein. 300 grams of white rice contains 10 grams of proteins.
  2. Carbohydrates provide energy to the human body and white rice is all about carbohydrates and starch.
  3. White rice is much easier to digest when compared to other types of rice. This particular trait makes white rice suitable for infants and even older ones.

Brown Rice:

Brown rice is not deprived of essential nutrients, in fact, it is a great source of high-quality nutrients. Though it is not widely used since it is much costlier than white rice.

Brown Rice is good for health in the following ways:

  1. Brown rice is high in vitamins and minerals. In the case of Brown rice is of a very high order.
  2. Brown rice has soluble fiber in it which assists in reducing the percentage of cholesterol in human blood.
  3. Unlike White rice, Brown rice takes time while digestion. This makes it last longer and provide energy for longer yet controlled periods.

Basmati Rice:

Basmati rice is a hybrid kind of rice. It can be brown or white in color depending on the milling process. This type of rice is widely consumed and is a real home favorite.

  • Basmati rice is longer in length. It looks good and gives a royal feel to the meal being prepared.
  • Basmati rice has a particular aroma along with it, which adds to the taste of the rice in a positive way. This aroma is imparted to Basmati rice with the help of a chemical called 2-acetyl-1-pyrrolysine.

These are the three commercial types of rice available in the market for general consumption.

 

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