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Importance of feedstock and soaking conditions on parboiled rice quality
Y. WANG (1) (1) Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, U.S.A..

Parboiled rice constitutes about 20% of the world’s milled rice. Parboiled rice finds useful application in the industrial and food service markets because of its ease of preparation durability, and stability. It is widely used in soups, puddings, and dinners, canned and frozen foods. In relation to nutrition, parboiled rice is a good source of slowly-digestible and resistant starch, B-vitamins, and minerals. Parboiling is an energy-intensive hydrothermal process that involves soaking, steaming, and drying. All three steps in parboiling may affect starch composition, structures, and physicochemical properties; however, there are many variables in each step and their contributions to starch properties in the resultant parboiled product have not been thoroughly elucidated. The inherent kernel properties and parboiling conditions, particualrly soaking conditions, that are crucial to the production of parboiled rice with consistent, desirable end-use qualities will be discussed.