What is Par boiling of paddy helps in retaining - and explain in detail?
<p> Parboiling of rice:- Parboiling ( paial cooking of rice) is an ancient method of preserving the quality of life. The technique recommended by the Central food technological Research Institute, Mysore is the hot soaking method. The process stas with soaking the paddy in hot water at 65 deg celcius for 3-4 hours, which swells the grain. This is followed by draining of water and steaming the soaked paddy in the same container for 5-10min. The paddy is then dried and later homepounded and milled. During the steaming process, a greater pa of the vitamins and minerals present in the outer aleurone layer of rice grain are driven into inner endosperm. With subsequent milling, the nutrients are not removed. There is also no loss of B group vitamin (niacin)which gets washed away at the end of cooking while draining away excess of water. The heat used in drying hardens the rice grain and makes the grain more resistant to insect invasion and more suitable for storage than raw rice. The starch also gets gelatinised which improves the keeping quality of rice. Disadvantage - peculiar smell/ off flavour. {Reference: Park&;s textbook of community medicine, 23 rd edition, pg no. 627}