MILLING CHARACTERISTICS OF BROWN RICE USING A CONTINUOUS TYPE CONDITIONER

The water conditioning experiments of brown rice were performed to verify the effect of brown rice conditioner and to decide the optimum operating variables for the conditioner. The initial moisture contents of 13-14%(wb) brown rice were used as experimental samples. The flow rate of brown rice passing through the conditioner was 2,940 kg/hr and water was supplied proportionally from 80 cc/min to 240 cc/min. The differences between expected and measured moisture contents were neglected except 0.25%(wb) of the maximum differences at 0.2920((cc/min)-water/(kg/min)'%-brown rice) of water supply rate. For the initial moisture contents of 13-14%(wb) brown rice, it was found that a proper water supply rate was 0.2415((cc/min)-water/(kg/min).%-brown rice) and the increments of whole rice was 2.3% compared to non conditioned ones. It was considered that the conditioning process did not influence the whiteness of milled rice because the whiteness differences between conditioned and non-conditioned milled rice were negligible.