Rice is low in protein and high in starch. Low protein levels in rice lead to protein and some essential amino acid deficiencies in people who take rice as their primary diet. Therefore, fortified rice can effectively improve the nutrition content of rice without making major changes to consumers’ diet habits. 1) The material is usually broken white rice from the rice processing factory. Mix it with some required micronutrients as the basic raw material. And then reform it into rice shape by extrusion technology, which is also called nutritional rice/fortified rice. There is a super-fortified rice designed to blend with white rice at a ratio of 1:100 to come as close as possible to rice in smell, taste and texture. 2) In addition, rice raw materials can blend with a certain proportion of other raw materials, such as soybean flour, potato flour or corn flour, etc., to produce rice analogues with different nutritional functions and textures by extrusion technology. 3) Another extruded rice shortens the cooking time for consumers, so it can also be used as precooked rice products.

Fortified rice/Nutritional rice/Rice analogue/Instant rice production line process:

Ingredients→Raw material mixing→Extrusion cooking→Forming→Pre-drying→Drying→Cooling→Packing

The broken rice is crushed into rice flour. Rice flour (sometimes blended with a certain proportion of soybean flour, potato flour, or corn flour), fortificants and water is mixed evenly, then the mixture is added to a specially designed extruder. The whole extrusion process can be regarded as starch pregelatinization process, which is very important for high quality products. Starch dough is subject to certain mechanical shear force and pressure during extrusion-cooking. The process design and the equipment parameters should allow the starch to be quick cooked and non-expanded. Moisture content, mechanical shear kinetic energy, extrusion temperature, material residence time in extruder barrel are all key parameters for the process design and equipment manufacturing to achieve different extrusion products. The extrudate is cut to the desired size and shape by a suitable die. The appearance of the pellets should be like the natural rice grains. The length is usually 4-8 mm and the width is 0.5-3 mm. Then the shaped rice is dried to remove moisture, and then packaged by an automatic packaging machine.

Note: 01–5% fortification/nutrient powder can be added to the rice producing process. Such as vitamin A, vitamin B1, folic acid, niacin, vitamin B12, vitamin B2, vitamin E, vitamin C, biotin, pantothenate, Vitamin K and its derivatives, as well as minerals and trace elements such as iron, selenium, zinc, calcium.

Selecting the proper raw materials and equipment configuration is critical to producing an acceptable end product. We help customers design the process and complete the process test. Our rice analog/fortified rice production line machines are perfectly matched to the process design. The final rice products mimics the size, shape and texture of real rice. Whether you need a machine, a complete production line for fortified rice/nutritional rice/rice analogues, or to expand your existing production capacity, you can rely on our professional knowledge and excellent production experience.