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THE FUTURE OF RICE PROCESSING
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by Rajat Ramesh, Product Manager, Bühler India ice has long been the staple food for more than 50 percent of the world’s population, and the importance of rice in the global food market is undisputed. At the same time, the industry is going through paradigm shifts, especially in terms of technological innovations to improve the quality of rice.
Paddy to rice milling process
The processing of paddy to rice can be understood in terms of processing sections. Principally, there are seven sections in a typical rice mill – cleaning, hulling, whitening, polishing, sorting, grading and packing. During this process, the paddy
Image 2: Automatic Whitener
44 | August 2020 - Milling and Grain
gets converted to white rice in different stages. Like any other manufacturing process, processors need to get the business economics right. This means ensuring the highest level of output while minimising wastage and downtime, so process optimisation is absolutely critical.
Importance of whitening in rice processing
The bigger challenge facing the rice processing industry is how to meet the ever-rising quality standards, and consistency in the product output quality is what customers want. Also known as the heart of the rice mill, the rice whitener almost dictates the quality of the end product and its consistency, and rice processing equipment manufacturers like Bühler are central to this process. Being a pioneer of the rice industry for nearly half a century, Bühler fully understands these rising customer demands and has
Image 3: RiceLinePro Sensor