2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

Fissures can form in rice kernel in different ways and affect the economic value, milling quality and processing of milled rice. Understanding fissure initiation and formation under drying or rewetting processes would be useful in finding techniques to reduce or eliminate its occurrence in rice kernels. A medium-grain rice (cv. Bengal) was used to investigate fissure formation in brown rice kernels at different drying and rewetting conditions. A video microscopy system and an environmental chamber were utilized to capture the photo image of the rice kernel under investigation and any fissure that formed when the kernel of rice was exposed to a variety of controlled drying and rewetting conditions. The results of the study indicated four different conditions where fissures developed in rice kernels. Characteristics of fissure formation, its initiation and propagation, in rice kernels that were exposed to fissure-causing environments were described. Fissures and surface cracks that formed in a rice kernel were also discussed and differentiated. This study enabled us to understand the different scenarios in which fissures formed in brown rice kernels. These information would be useful in integrating our various efforts in rice dying to minimize fissure formation and improve the milling quality of rice.