Morphology and physicochemical changes in rice flour during rice paper production

Rice flour samples from four steps of rice paper processing were prepared from rice grain, Chainart 1 variety: wet-milled flour (WMF), 24 hour soak-milled flour (24SF), 48 hour soak-milled (48SF), and dried rice paper (DRP). Decrease in protein, fat and amylose content occurred during prolonged fermentation but increase of ash content due to addition of salt occurred. Because of lactic acid bacteria activity, increases occurred in titratable acidity as lactic acid in soaking water during fermentation. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that starch granule surfaces wilted and showed corrosion channels with longer fermentation. Pasting and thermal properties of the four samples were significantly different; 24SF and 48SF showed lower peak viscosity, breakdown and final viscosity. Increasing fermentation time increased gelatinization temperature, endothermic energy and relative crystallinity. The results suggest that lactic acid and enzyme hydrolysis during fermentation in rice paper processing caused significant decrease in amorphous structure and increase in crystallinity in rice starch.