Effects of Milling on the Bran Removal, Nutritional and Cooking Characteristics of Traditional Rice Cultivars

The percentage of bran removed from the rice cultivars in the time interval of 0 to 30s showed sharp slope, but the slope was less after this time duration (30-60s). The rice cultivar Koshkari exhibited the highest percentage of bran removal at each milling interval of 10s due to greater thickness of its rice kernels. The percentage of protein with milling duration depicted negative correlation, which indicated higher protein content could be retained by lowering the time period of milling. The difference in fat percentage with milling time from 0 to 60s was found higher in Mushki Budgi (1.15%) and lowest in Koshkari (0.53%). The carbohydrate content of these rice cultivars at each successive stage of milling were found to increase with Mushki budgi depicted the highest rise in percentage in carbohydrate content (3.61%) after 60s milling. The greater loss in ash content with increasing the degree of milling was found in Mushki budgi (94.73%). The elongation ratio of the experimental rice cultivars were found to increase at each successive stage of milling interval. The increase in solids loss at each milling stage could be due to bursting of the rice kernels upon cooking, as the increase in carbohydrate content at each successive milling stage resulted in greater absorption of water. Keeping in view all the health related benefits associated with brown rice, the research focus on the optimum time required for milling rice, so that the cooking quality of rice kernels would be best along with its nutritional characteristics.