Paddy Parboiling (Pre-Cooking)

Parboiling or Pre-cooking is a process where the paddy is exposed to hot water and steam in controlled invironment to achieve Desired Property of end Product. Modification of biochemichal properties of rice for achieving Desired taste, colour, shelf life, cooking properties by steaming, soaking and drying of paddy techniques. Excess Starch is also withdrawn during the process along with some portion of the complex Carbohydrates. Thus making the end Product more easily digestive and good for diabetic Patients too. This Process can be called Half Cooking. When the Half Cooking Paddy is dried it becomes altogether a different product. Sometimes due to twisting and Crushing during harvesting, sudden Rise in atmospheric temprature and other unfavourable conditions Paddy in Fields can develop micro cracks. If the paddy is milled as it is in a raw rice mill then the micro Cracks can Result in high broken. But if the same Paddy is directly put to Parboiling Plant the Pre-Cooking Process will dissolve the micro cracks and the yield of head rice is improved to a great extend. Some Varities of Paddy which have high broken percentage can yield much more head rice in parboiled mills in comparison to raw rice mill. No matter what is the input moisture of Paddy before; the Pre-Cooking Process will maintain the uniform moisture in the output Therefore the Pre-Cooking is boon for tackling food scarcity and shortage due to increasing population and deacreasing cultivation area.

Paddy Parboiling Plant

Types of Paddy Parboiling (Pre-Cooking) Plants:

Steaming (Half Parboiling) Plants
Full Parboiling (Single Stage) Plants
Full Parboiling (Three Stage) Plants
Two in One Plants

Steaming (Half Parboiling ) Plants

Half Parboiling Means that the paddy has been Steamed and Tempered. There is no Soaking and no concact and use of water in the process. The output rice is Just as Raw Rice But with improved Cooking properties and it will be having better taste and easy to Digest.

Steaming plants Are Available for capacities as under:

2 ton per Hour / 48 Ton per Day
3 ton per Hour / 70 Ton per Day
4 ton per Hour / 90 Ton per Day
6 ton per Hour /140 Ton per Day
8 ton per Hour / 180 Ton per Day

Full Parboiling Plants

Paddy is steamed, soaked in hot or cold water then re-steamed to give cooking a final touch in single tank (Single Stage) or in different tanks speacilly made ofr the purpose (Three Stage)

Full Parboiling plants Are Available for capacities as under:

2 ton per Hour / 48 Ton per Day
3 ton per Hour / 70 Ton per Day
4 ton per Hour / 90 Ton per Day
6 ton per Hour /140 Ton per Day
8 ton per Hour / 180 Ton per Day

Factors Which Decide the Type and Configuration of Plant

Type of paddy:

The most important factor around which the specifications and configurations of any plant are based upon. Every variety has different botamnical and biological strucutre. That makes them easy or harder to cook and dry.
Thumb Rule: Courser is the paddy high temprature and fast drying is posible , fine qualities of paddy like Basmati takes longer time to cook and dry.

Colour of output Rice:

Area to area demand for colour is different from super white , to transparent white, cream , dark cream, pale yellow to lemon yellow. So the cofiguration of the plant is decided accordingly.
Thumb rule: Lighter is the colour of Rice it takes longer time than dark colour Rice colour.

Production Required Per hour/ Per Day :

When Production requirement is high the no of steaming , cooking tanks and the Dryers has to be incares accordingly.
Thumb rule: For increase in production every thing should be streamlined and free from bottlenecks and everything bigger will produce
more parboiled paddy than a smaller hardware and equipments used.

Cooking Properties:

Some Rice Brands calim that they can be cooked fast or they have good cookingproperties, its all how much before preparation (pre -cooking) has been done already to the rice in form of paddy . Area to area demand for cooking properties is different from Slow to medium or fast to instant cooked rice . Post harvest Defects also account for traces of less cooked rice . More carefully the cooking and drying has been done the results will be better.
Thumb rule: Better and fast cooking , More time taken in the Parboiling process.

Need of Paddy Precooking Process and Advantages of Precooked Rice over Raw Rice

1. Increased shelf Life of Grain.
2. Inproved taste.
3. Better Cooking Result when cooked along other food ingredients.
4. Less expertise required to cook.
5. cooks faster and saves energy.
6. Good for Diabetics.
7. Can Give Feeling of Full Stomach for Longer duration.
8. Better Milling result and improved yield of head rice.
9. Value addition by alteration in shape as in flaking process.
10. More increased use due to non conventional applications of Rice in case of Puff Rice.
11. Less Likely to spoil and stick as a lump during Cooking.
12. Lesser Broken in Case of full Parboiling and more yield.
13. and Many more...

In addition there is application of other process like drying, rice milling, flacking and roasting for value addition to the Pre-Cooking Process.

Quality and Properties of end Product can be altered by Changing following Factors:

1. Number of Parboiling Methods & Stages used
2. Soaking Time
3. Temprature of Water
4. Circulation of Water
5. Pressure of Steam
6. Duration of Steam exposure
7. Time taken in Drying
8. Output Moisture
9. Batch Quantity
10. Starch Washing Circles

Factors that effect the Cooking and Drying time:

1. Colour desired
2. Paddy Quality
3. Regular and constant Steam Pressure
4. Desired Cooking
5. Water Hardness
6. Stages of the parboiling used
7. Cooking time to Drying time Ratio
8. Output Moisture
9. Batch Quantity
10. No of Starch Wash water Circles

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