Preparation of a Quick‐cooking Brown Rice Product Using a Centrifugal Fluidized Bed Drier

A quick‐cooking brown rice product was developed using the centrifugal fluidized bed drier (“CFB”) concept. The high heat transfer rates in the CFB equipment provided a dry quick‐cooking brown rice in about 5 min drying time, after precooking. Preparation time for the finished product was 10–15 min, about one‐fourth that required for raw brown rice. Protein, vitamin, and mineral contents were comparable to raw brown‘rice and higher than white rice. Selected processing conditions were successfully used on a continuous CFB unit, producing about 40 1b/hr finished product. Yields were high, as very few broken kernels were observed.