Generality
Parboiled rice - also known as converted rice - is a food product made from the edible seeds of the cereal Oryza sativa. It is therefore not a specific variety of rice, but a processing method that can be applied to different types of rice.
The three basic steps of "parboiling" are:
- soaking in hot water;
- steam cooking at high temperature and under pressure;
- drying (drying).
These steps make the parboiled:
- easy to work (hardens the individual grains, facilitates the removal of the husk and reduces the amount of grains broken during husking and husking);
- richer from a nutritional point of view;
- more storable;
- more resistant to cooking (can be cooked for a long time without disintegrating).
About 50% of world rice production is directed to the production of parboiled rice; in fact, this treatment is applied in many countries of the world such as: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guinea, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Thailand, Switzerland, United States and France.
The name parboiled derives from the English partially boiled, partially boiled
Employments
The most significant characteristic of parboiled rice concerns the structure of the starch, which during soaking and steam cooking tends to gelatinize, and then regress upon cooling.
With gelatinization, the amylose molecules come out of the granular starch complex and partially dissolve in the surrounding aqueous medium. When the starch is fully hydrated it gelatinizes and reaches maximum viscosity becoming translucent.
Cooling involves the retrocession of the process, in which the amylose molecules are reassociated with each other and form a compact structure on the surface. This phase increases the formation of resistant starch type 3, which is better able to withstand heat and has prebiotic functions. The seeds, consequently, require a faster cooking, release less starch and maintain a harder and "glassy" consistency.
- Parboiled is very resistant to prolonged cooking (it does not overcook).
- It cooks quickly and can be cooked in advance and stored in the fridge without losing its characteristics.
- It is particularly suitable for salads, but it is also very popular for preparing dry rice, for example with tomato sauce.
Nutritional Benefits
Parboiling appears to have the ability to partially convey nutritional molecules from the bran to the endosperm (especially vitamin B1 or thiamine), making its nutritional spectrum much more similar to brown rice (obviously, with less fiber). greater consistency of its surface, a grain of parboiled rice releases less nutrients into the cooking water.
Thanks to this nutritional improvement, parboiled rice has been produced in North America since the early 20th century. On the same continent, the product is available with various levels of pre-cooking and also exists in versions fortified with certain minerals such as, for example, zinc and iron.
Dietary Characteristics
Parboiled rice is a food that belongs to the III fundamental group of foods.
Being dehydrated, it has a rather high energy intake. Calories are mainly provided by carbohydrates, followed by proteins and finally by lipids (negligible). The carbohydrates tend to be complex, the peptides are of medium biological value and the few fatty acids are above all unsaturated.
Cholesterol is absent and the fibers, which tend to be insoluble, are not too abundant.
From a saline point of view, parboiled rice has a good content of iron and phosphorus, but there is no lack of discrete concentrations of microelements. As far as vitamins are concerned, the most present is the water-soluble B1 (thiamine).
Parboiled rice does not contain gluten and lactose, which is why it lends itself to the diet for related intolerances. It is allowed in vegetarian and vegan diets, but not in raw food.
Its presence in the diet is to be alternated with other cereals but, overall, the III fundamental group of foods should be part of the daily diet. The portions must be smaller for obese subjects, for those with diabetes or hyperglycemia and for those suffering from hypertriglyceridemia.
The average portion of parboiled rice is around 70-90g weighed dry.
To better highlight the chemical differences between common polished rice and parboiled, below we expose the chemical details of both foods.
Com "is clearly visible from the table, the substantial difference between parboiled and polished rice lies in the saline and vitamin profile.
Potassium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, selenium and vitamin B1 are the nutrients that are more abundant in parboiled than in polished rice.
Evolution of the Production Method
Older production methods involved soaking clean paddy rice in cold water for 36-38 hours, so that humidity could reach 30-35%; subsequently, it was placed in the parboiling equipment with cold water and boiled until the bran was separated. It was then subjected to cooling, drying and processing.
In 1910, the German-British scientist Erich Gustav Huzenlaub (1899-1964) and the English chemist Francis Heron Rogers invented a technique capable of preserving the nutritional content of the seeds and making them more resistant to insects belonging to the family of weevils. This process is called Huzenlaub and involves:
- Vacuum drying of dry and still whole seeds
- Vacuum cooking with steam
- Vacuum drying
- Refining process (husking).
In the methods perfected subsequently, the rice is soaked in hot water and steamed by boiling, which takes only 3 hours rather than the 20 of traditional systems and gives the rice a yellowish color and greater resistance during processing.
Depending on the duration of steam cooking during the production process, parboiled rice is obtained which requires different cooking times: from 16-19 minutes for those with limited heat treatment, up to 5-10 minutes for parboiled rice subjected to cooking in the prolonged steam.
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