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Relating Rice Milling Quality Changes During Adsorption to Individual Kernel Moisture Content Distribution¹

¹Published with the approval of the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. Mention of trademark or proprietary products does not constitute a guarantee or warranty by the University of Arkansas and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable. ²Professor, research assistant, and former graduate assistant, respectively, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. ³Corresponding author. E-mail: tsiebenm@saturn.uark.edu ⁴Associate Professor, Agricultural Statistics Department, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.

Several varieties of rough rice that were either stored for an extended period of time or freshly harvested were conditioned to initial moisture contents ranging from 10 to 17%. After the individual kernel moisture content distributions were measured, the samples were soaked in water at temperatures ranging from 10 to 40°C. The samples were then dried and milled. The bulk critical moisture content, at which head rice yield began to decline due to moisture adsorption, ranged from 12.5 to 14.9%, depending on the variety, harvest moisture content, and storage conditions. The kernel critical moisture content, determined from each sample from the cumulative kernel moisture content frequency distribution, increased with increasing sample initial moisture content.