Food Losses in Rice Milling

Abstract

Rice milling is an essential process in the food industry as rice is inconsumable in its unprocessed form, called paddy. Rice milling transforms paddy into rice by removing the inedible parts step by step. Husk is the outermost part which consists of fiber and hard spines and needs to be removed first. The husk removal process is called hulling or de-husking. Rice with the absence of husk is called brown rice based on its color. Brown color is in fact surface property as the color further inside is white. Rice becomes edible once the husk is removed, however, this form is not recommended for people with digestive problem. Rice eaters are advised to remove some parts on the outer layer of the brown rice before consuming and the process referred to as whitening changes the color of rice from brown to white. The task is sometimes misquoted as polishing which is a separate operation in the rice milling following whitening. As such, hulling and whitening are fundamental operations in the course of converting paddy into rice. Other operations included in the milling are complementary due to technical requirements to meet market demand. Ironically, whitening operation today is excessive and has turned out to be a food-wasting operation especially in the milling of so-called high-quality rice where whitening and polishing are being overly done. Most of the rice in today’s market are not only extremely white and polished, but also slippery and reflective. The wastage associated with excessive processing is discussed further in this chapter and ways to balance consumer requirements and wastage reduction in the mill is elaborated.