Improvements in Technology for Parboiling Rice Parboiled rice is the form predominantly used in South Asia and to lesser extents elsewhere. Technologies for parboiling, which are somewhat primitive in South Asia and highly sophisticated in the United States and Europe, are well established. Three important gaps in existing technologies are addressed in this article. First, a simple system for continuous steaming of soaked paddy (rough rice) has been developed that can be adopted not only by simple, traditional rice mills, but by modern ones as well. Second, a pretreatment for paddy has been developed as part of the process to minimize the influence of differences in the age of raw paddy material on product quality. Third, a technique has been incorporated into the soaking system to reduce microbial fermentation, even with soaking at relatively low temperatures. |