The treatment is practiced in many parts of the world such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Guinea, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Thailand, Switzerland, USA and France.
Parboiled rice is prepared by soaking, cooking and drying of paddy, Soaking means paddy is penetrating in to water. In heating the energy weakens the granules structure and more surfaces become available for water absorption. During soaking, the hydration rate increases with an increase in soak water temperature.
The main objective the parboiling to increase the total and head rice yield of paddy, to prevents the loss of nutrients during milling.
In the basic production steps are hydration of the paddy (to a moisture level ~24–30% wb), thermal treatment (between 10 to 24 hours) to achieve complete gelatinization and dehydration to a moisture content appropriate for milling.
The parboiled rice kernels should be translucent when wholly gelatinized. Retrogradation is where amylose molecules re-associate with each other and form a tightly packed structure. This increases the formation of type 3-resistant starch which can act as a probiotic and benefit gut health in humans.
Parboiling of paddy
