Effect of steam curing on pasting and textural properties, starch structure and the quality of a local aromatic rice variety

Abstract

Processing is an important step of rice postharvest. Choosing a suitable process can help to overcome qualitative and quantitative losses and to produce the desired quality based on the consumers and market demands. It is not easy to define as the quality depends on consumer preference, market demands, and other limiting factors such as international and /or national standards. Providing rice with proper cooking quality immediately after harvest is one of the important concerns in the Asian rice milling industry. Freshly harvested rice does not have good cooking quality. They stick together during cooking and large amounts of solids (starch) enter the cooking water (Prem Santhi & Palanimuthu, 2019). Rice aging is a natural phenomenon and a complex one (Saikrishna et al., 2018). Less grain adhesion during cooking, harder texture, increased length, increased water uptake, reduced solid loss, and altered pasting properties are the main results of aging that are preferred by many consumers. Generally, aging of rice takes 3 to 6 months (Jaisut et al., 2009).Accelerated aging is an applicable method that is used to produce rice with the quality resemble to naturally aged rice, reduce the need for space, operational and maintenance costs, and save required time for the product to reach the market (Saikrishna et al., 2018).