Rice Drying, Storage and Processing: Effects of Post-Harvest Operations on Grain Quality

Various post-harvest processes of rice are commonly employed, especially during the off-season, to ensure its consumption feasibility, which often affect the grain quality. Different forms of drying, storage and processing of rice are evaluated to identify their effects on grain quality. Microwave drying has emerged as an alternative to the widely-used intermittent-drying and fixed-bed-dryer methods of drying paddy rice. Control of drying-air temperatures (between 40°C and 60°C) according to the rice variety can improve quality, especially for exotic varieties. Keeping stored grain in hygroscopic balance, with water content between 11% to 15%, at temperatures between 16°C and 20°C and with intergranular relative humidity near 60%, allows 12 months of storage in a controlled environment without significant deterioration. Other innovations, notably the application of artificial refrigeration to grain stored in bulk in vertical cylindrical silos and the use of impermeable packaging for storage, ensure the conservation of grain mass. The different stages and equipments used to obtain polished, brown and parboiled rice result in significant changes in the nutritional value of rice because of the removal of the outermost layers of the grains. Polishing reduces the nutritional value and physical homogeneity of rice. Brown rice retains more bioactive compounds and nutrients because it does not lose the outer layer of the grains in the polishing processes. Parboiled rice, although less nutritious than brown rice, has better grain integrity and milling yield and less loss of nutrients than white rice.