Drying characteristics and milling quality of parboiled Japonica rice under various drying conditions

Rice is a staple for a large population around the world. Drying and tempering of rice, a known process overtime is still done improperly due to energy cost, know-how and other factors. This causes huge loses in quantity and quality. Different aspects of drying were investigated to optimize the process. Moisture contents and drying rate were determined. Japonica rice was treated using the parboiling process. The rice was dried and tempered at different periods and temperatures using sealed plastic bags. Various quality parameters were examined. Duncan multiple test and one way ANOVA were used to analyze data in SAS software. Moisture content after parboiling was increased to 28.3% from the initial 14.3%. A significant improvement in milling yield from 68.71% of a control to 73.4% of the optimal was recorded. Duncan multiple test and ANOVA analyses showed a possibility in tempering time reduction. Findings from this study provides more information on drying of parboiled Japonica rice and will enable optimization of the process.