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Paddy Rice or Rough Rice
Brown Rice
Milled Rice
Broken Rice
Rice Bran and Stabilized Rice Bran
Organic Rice
Parboiled Rice
Instant Rice
IQF Rice
Parboiled Rice
Parboiled rice has been through a special cooking process, called parboiling, prior to milling. While in the paddy form, the rice is soaked and then steam cooked. This process does not allow the kernel to swell during the cooking and the moisture level does not exceed 40%, versus cooked table rice, which is most often cooked to a moisture level of 64%. The starch granule is cooked (technically gelatinized), but not allowed to swell. The rice is then dried while still in the paddy form and then passed through a standard milling process to remove the hull and bran.
This process has been going on for centuries in many countries and is believed to have started in ancient India. Researchers learned in the early 1900's that parboiled rice retained some of the vitamins that exist in bran, but are lost in the milling of milled rice. The incidence of beriberi was reduced when diets were changed from white rice to parboiled rice because of increased levels of thiamin in parboiled rice. Uncle Ben made the process famous in the United States with its converted (same as parboiled) rice. The process may have originated to sterilize the rice and allow longer storage conditions. (All rice comes from the field with insect eggs in the germ of the rice. These eggs hatch when the temperature is warm and moisture is available.) The high temperatures occurring during parboiling kill any insect eggs in the rice and essentially sterilize it. Parboiling also mends the cracks in the rice (glues broken rice back together) and dramatically improves the milling yield of whole kernels in the rice. This improvement in milling yield, especially for poor quality paddy, can justify the cost of the process.
Parboiling changes the texture of the rice. It becomes firmer and less sticky. It is a much more durable kernel. It takes just as long to cook (actually a little longer) as white rice, but is much easier to cook. It is almost fool proof. It can be overcooked without being mushy or losing its grain shape. It does not have to be steamed. It can be cooked by blanching only. It has a long steam table life, which is important for restaurants. For these reasons, parboiled rice was adopted as the preferred rice of the restaurant industry long ago and so many consumers have become accustomed to the taste and texture parboiled rice. It is the only type of rice that can withstand the harsh treatment of most industrial processes that involve cooking and then freezing, canning, or drying. Most rice that is sold in the supermarket in some sort of cooked or partially cooked form has been parboiled.
In the U.S., some parboiled rice is sold into the consumer market, but most is sold into the food service (for use in restaurants) and industrial markets (for use in prepared meals). A great deal is exported to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Europe and other countries.
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