How the world's premier staple goes from padi to plate
Sunday, October 12, 2008
MANY people in Southeast Asia have seen rice growing in padi fields. As it grows it turns a most vibrant shade of green. It is such an intense colour, there is little else in nature to compare. Rice is a staple diet of many people the world over, but I wonder how many people actually know the process of what happens to the rice after it is taken from the fields until it arrives in bags in the supermarket.
When I was in Battambang province of northwest Cambodia, I saw many rice fields, although it was dry season so they were all fallow. I was told the people could get three crops of rice a year here and it is considered the rice bowl of the county.
As the rice grows, it turns into padi and becomes light brown in colour. When sufficiently grown, the field is drained until it is completely dry, and the plant turns to the colour of hay, then the paddy harvesting can begin. The stalks are cut at ground level and then taken to the threshing site where the paddy grain is separated from the rest of the cut crop. In many parts of Cambodia the harvesting and threshing is done manually.
The rice is then air dried in the sun. As I passed through villages, there was rice everywhere. It was laid out to dry on plastic sheets and mats, occupying the open areas in front of houses and even laid out on the side of the road. The chickens and scavenging animals thought it a windfall. They were shooed away by the people who were raking the rice to turn it. When sufficiently dry, the rice is taken to the local mill.
Travelling to some of the more rural areas, I passed several rice mills. Being curious, I went in one, to see what I could discover. These rice mills transform paddy rice into white rice, and making it fit for human consumption. When rice is harvested it has a non-edible hull or husk surrounding the kernel.
Inside the dark and cavernous interior of the mill it was noisy when the machinery was going, and the air was quite dusty with rice particles. First the husk is cleaned, to remove immature grains as well as foreign objects, such as straw, stalks and stones from the padi. The padi is passed through coarse screens to remove all objects that are larger than the rice. Then the rice passes over fine screens to remove small seeds, sand and dirt, stones, and other objects smaller than the rice. Air separation systems are sometimes used in this process.
The hulling process removes excessive husks from the cleaned padi. This is done by passing the rice through two spinning rubber rollers. Once removed, brown rice is separated from the husks by a ventilation process and mechanical equipment leaving pure brown rice available for milling.
Brown Rice is simply rice with the bran layer left on. The processing involves passing the rough rice through machines which remove the hull, producing brown rice with the bran layers still intact around the kernel.
Milled rice is white rice, so it has had all or part of the bran and germ removed. The milling is a whitening process, as it removes the bran layer from brown rice. The milling machines use both abrasion and friction to gently and efficiently convert brown rice to milled white kernels. The bran layer is removed by air ventilation which sucks away the bran layer.
Once milled, the rice is then polished. Rollers smooth and brighten the surface of the rice grains. By now the rice is essentially finished, and just has to be graded. The grading separates milled rice by sieve graders of different sizes. The rice comes in a variety of sizes, as there is whole grain and broken rice.
The rice is then sorted to remove discolored rice such as immature green grains, or yellow ones. The sorting also gets rid of any foreign objects that have got through the system, such as seeds and stones.
Now the finished rice can be packed and stored in 50 or 100 kg jute bags, according to its grade, and is ready for delivery.
In more developed countries, the process of milling is done in modern machines which are quite compact. However, the mills I saw in Cambodia were lacking in modern technology, although some of the metal pieces were made in Vietnam. A giant two storey wooden framework supported huge belts that moved pieces of machinery, and large trays wobbled and shook as the rice went through the different processes. There was even a wooden staircase to the upper level. It was like something out of a working museum. There were cobwebs covered in rice dust everywhere and I imagined the place to be a real fire hazard. However the system seemed fairly automated once running and there were only one or two men there, who were engaged in bagging the prepared rice.
It was a fascinating place. I am glad I stuck my head in the door and went in to investigate. Now I know how the rice on my plate got there from the padi field.
The Brunei Times
When I was in Battambang province of northwest Cambodia, I saw many rice fields, although it was dry season so they were all fallow. I was told the people could get three crops of rice a year here and it is considered the rice bowl of the county.
As the rice grows, it turns into padi and becomes light brown in colour. When sufficiently grown, the field is drained until it is completely dry, and the plant turns to the colour of hay, then the paddy harvesting can begin. The stalks are cut at ground level and then taken to the threshing site where the paddy grain is separated from the rest of the cut crop. In many parts of Cambodia the harvesting and threshing is done manually.
The rice is then air dried in the sun. As I passed through villages, there was rice everywhere. It was laid out to dry on plastic sheets and mats, occupying the open areas in front of houses and even laid out on the side of the road. The chickens and scavenging animals thought it a windfall. They were shooed away by the people who were raking the rice to turn it. When sufficiently dry, the rice is taken to the local mill.
Travelling to some of the more rural areas, I passed several rice mills. Being curious, I went in one, to see what I could discover. These rice mills transform paddy rice into white rice, and making it fit for human consumption. When rice is harvested it has a non-edible hull or husk surrounding the kernel.
Inside the dark and cavernous interior of the mill it was noisy when the machinery was going, and the air was quite dusty with rice particles. First the husk is cleaned, to remove immature grains as well as foreign objects, such as straw, stalks and stones from the padi. The padi is passed through coarse screens to remove all objects that are larger than the rice. Then the rice passes over fine screens to remove small seeds, sand and dirt, stones, and other objects smaller than the rice. Air separation systems are sometimes used in this process.
The hulling process removes excessive husks from the cleaned padi. This is done by passing the rice through two spinning rubber rollers. Once removed, brown rice is separated from the husks by a ventilation process and mechanical equipment leaving pure brown rice available for milling.
Brown Rice is simply rice with the bran layer left on. The processing involves passing the rough rice through machines which remove the hull, producing brown rice with the bran layers still intact around the kernel.
Milled rice is white rice, so it has had all or part of the bran and germ removed. The milling is a whitening process, as it removes the bran layer from brown rice. The milling machines use both abrasion and friction to gently and efficiently convert brown rice to milled white kernels. The bran layer is removed by air ventilation which sucks away the bran layer.
Once milled, the rice is then polished. Rollers smooth and brighten the surface of the rice grains. By now the rice is essentially finished, and just has to be graded. The grading separates milled rice by sieve graders of different sizes. The rice comes in a variety of sizes, as there is whole grain and broken rice.
The rice is then sorted to remove discolored rice such as immature green grains, or yellow ones. The sorting also gets rid of any foreign objects that have got through the system, such as seeds and stones.
Now the finished rice can be packed and stored in 50 or 100 kg jute bags, according to its grade, and is ready for delivery.
In more developed countries, the process of milling is done in modern machines which are quite compact. However, the mills I saw in Cambodia were lacking in modern technology, although some of the metal pieces were made in Vietnam. A giant two storey wooden framework supported huge belts that moved pieces of machinery, and large trays wobbled and shook as the rice went through the different processes. There was even a wooden staircase to the upper level. It was like something out of a working museum. There were cobwebs covered in rice dust everywhere and I imagined the place to be a real fire hazard. However the system seemed fairly automated once running and there were only one or two men there, who were engaged in bagging the prepared rice.
It was a fascinating place. I am glad I stuck my head in the door and went in to investigate. Now I know how the rice on my plate got there from the padi field.
The Brunei Times
Published on The Brunei Times (http://www.bt.com.bn/en)
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I've posted photos under an album rice mill in Cambodia.
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