How to distinguish polished rice from refined rice?
4hw.org: the rice we eat every day is processed from rice, but it is not the crystal clear rice we eat after rice hulling. Rice needs to go through hulling to become brown rice. Only after the surface layer and some embryos are removed can we form the late rice. In order to ensure the crystal clear rice, some bad businesses remove the bran powder through polishing , even sell the rice after polishing, but these have become "poisonous rice". How to distinguish whether the rice has been polished? The more refined the rice, the better? Let's solve the mystery together!
Not refined rice?
Loss of nutrients caused by multiple polishing
'white rice flour is the powder left after rice has been shelled, tossed and selected, and peeled for three layers. After polishing, it's rice kernel. Local people don't eat this kind of white rice. Du Yanling, who shares organic farming practices with CsA in Dujia Town, Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, posted pictures on her microblog to compare the differences between polished 'rice' and 'white rice flour' and 'unpolished rice'. Wuchang is a famous Xiangmi producing area in China, but in recent years, pesticide and chemical fertilizer have greatly damaged the soil. Du Yanling hopes to improve the land of her hometown through the support and selection of consumers, so that more people can participate in organic agriculture and eat Wuchang Xiangmi at ease.
'the husk of rice is brown rice after it is removed by huller. The structure of brown rice is composed of embryo, pericarp, seed coat, aleurone layer and endosperm. 'said Du Yanling. Rice generally contains 18% - 20% rice husk, 1.2% - 1.5% pericarp and seed coat, 4% - 6% aleurone layer, 2% - 3.5% embryo and 66% - 70% endosperm. In addition to starch, more than 60% nutrients in rice are concentrated in embryo and cortex. From the perspective of nutrition, brown rice cortex and embryo are rich in fat, cellulose, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients, so it is more nutritious than rice without most of the cortex and embryo.
Many nutrients in rice, such as lysine, threonine, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B5, vitamin B6 and other minerals and dietary fiber, are necessary for human body, and have functional physiological activity, which can be easily absorbed after eating. The contents of protein and vitamin in embryo were the highest, while the nutrients in other parts decreased from the surface to the inside. The vitamins, minerals and a large number of amino acids accumulated in the outer layer of the rice. 'Du Yanling said that for the refined rice with too many times of processing, after many times of polishing, the seed coat and aleurone layer were all peeled off, leaving only the endosperm, and even the endosperm had been milled off several layers, and the rest was mainly starch, commonly known as rice kernel.
'eating over processed rice every day, and not fully supplemented by other foods, is easy to cause B vitamin deficiency, beriberi, neuritis, cheilitis, keratitis, constipation and other diseases, and even lack of vitamins, potassium, iron, calcium and other nutrients. 'said Du Yanling.
According to Ruan Guangfeng, author of guoke.com and master of nutrition and food safety, comparing the rice standards of more than ten years ago and now in China, it can be found that the precision of rice processing in China tends to increase. Chinese staple food is basically white rice and white flour. The outer layer (about 30%) of the refined white rice flour has been ground off, leaving only about 70% of the finer and whiter parts in the middle. A lot of vitamins and minerals have been lost. The main ingredient is starch, which will soon be digested and turned into glucose after entering the stomach and intestines, and then swarmed into the blood, which is particularly easy to raise blood sugar. According to the Chinese food composition table, the glycemic index of white rice is 83, while the glycemic index of white bread is 88, all of which are high GI (glycemic index) foods, and long-term consumption is not conducive to glycemic control.
'the higher the processing accuracy, the higher the GI value of food. "Said Ruan Guangfeng. So, our staple food is too refined.
Why polish?
Good selling, high price and long shelf life
Since the nutritional value of polished rice is not as good as that of brown rice, why go through precision processing?
One organic farming practitioner, who declined to be named, said it was actually a choice for consumers. Consumers like crystal clear and bright rice, 'polished rice sells well'.
In the unpolished rice, it will surely be mixed with grains that are not full, immature or even imperfect. The sizes of grains vary, and even there are half grains of variegated grains. Consumers will think this is' bad rice '. As a result, some manufacturers produce over processed milled rice to please consumers, which means increasing the pressure of rice mills and increasing the number of polishing.
The traditional one-time shelled rice processing technology retains most of the nutrients of rice as much as possible, but it is unrealistic to require the traditional technology to be used in the rice processing. "Du Yanling said that small machines with traditional technology can only process 34 tons of rice peeled every day, while modern rice processing machines can grind 120 tons of rice a day. In contrast, rice farmers are naturally more willing to choose modern processing methods.
In addition, the shelf life of rice processed by traditional technology is not as long as polished rice. The more polishing times, the longer shelf life of rice. 'said Du Yanling. There is a layer of rice bran on the surface of unpolished rice, which is rich in nutrition. However, due to the small grain size of rice bran, it is easy to get moldy and deteriorated during transportation and storage, and those moldy and deteriorated rice can be easily seen. Therefore, businesses are more willing to choose new rice for polishing sales. Polished rice is clean, bright, crystal clear, and even free of washing. The price is also more expensive than rough processed rice.
Is polishing risky?
The more processing links, the greater the risk
Modern rice processing technology mainly includes cleaning, hulling, milling, white rice grading, packaging, polishing and color selection.
'most of the rice on the market is selected by three casts or two casts. 'said Du Yanling. The first step is to clean up the sand and stone mixed in Rice by vibration function. The second step is rice hulling. Rice grains are separated from rice hulls by rolling. In the third step, rice and brown rice were separated, and rice which had not been shelled was shelled again. The fourth step is to select the color, select the different color grains, and select out the pale yellow and white rice, that is, the process of selecting out the 'white beauty' rice. The fifth step is processing. The sixth step is grading. The seventh step is polishing. The process of polishing and color selection is repeated 2-3 times, i.e. the said two polishing and two selecting and three polishing and three selecting.
At present, the popular polishing is wet polishing, that is to say, adding a proper amount of water in the polishing process, so that the binding force between endosperm and a small amount of rice bran left on the rice is weakened, which is conducive to thoroughly milling rice bran, improving the smoothness and polishing uniformity of rice. "Du Yanling said, but the more processing links, the greater the risk of insecurity. In order to improve the brightness of rice surface, some illegal manufacturers not only add water, but also add inedible mineral oil or polishing powder illegally when polishing, which becomes "poisonous rice". There are also processing oil, polishes, flavors, etc., but also on the rice packaging on the "no wash" label.
"There are also illegal businesses that mix old grains with polished grains for many times, which is difficult to identify!" Du said, "polishing procedures reduce the rice yield and increase power consumption. Generally, we eat brown rice or slightly processed it in rural areas. The deeper the processing degree is, the longer the industrial chain is, the more the raw material loss and energy consumption will be. Therefore, it is wrong to blindly pursue the consumption concept of rice over processing. Many people pursue the refined rice, no need to wash the rice, pay more, but buy the rice with lost nutrition, which also causes the waste of resources.
distinguish
Brown rice vs rough rice
Brown rice is a kind of rice which is composed of embryo, pericarp, aleurone layer and endosperm. Although it contains all nutrients, it tastes like rice bran, rough and hard to swallow.
Rough processed rice is shelled once by traditional technology, but without three or two discards and three selections, some rice heads may be light yellow incomplete particles, not beautiful. But as far as possible to retain the nutritional elements of rice, the taste is suitable.
Rough rice vs polished rice?
The traditional rough rice washing hair with "rice washing water" has many advantages. The concentration is much thicker than that of the rice washing water. From the perspective of freshness, the rice washing water is much cleaner. The color of the rough rice washing water is very white, and it is still very white when it is washed for 3-4 times. In addition, when the hand is inserted into the traditional rough processed rice, it will feel dry and the rice flour will stick to the hand.