Food scientists have developed a new process for turning grains of rice into “super-nutritious” puffed rice that can be used to boost the health value of breakfast cereals, snacks, nutrient bars, and other foods.
The new process gives grains of rice three times more protein and additional nutrients that make it ideal for products sold in school lunch programs, quick meals, and on-the-go foods, the scientists said.
In a report on the development, published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Syed S.H. Rizvi and colleagues explained that the current commercial process for creating puffed rice uses steam and can destroy heat-sensitive nutrients.
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But the new puffing technique uses carbon dioxide and does not result in nutrient losses, but instead enriches rice with three times more protein and eight times more dietary fiber than commercial puffed rice. It also contains calcium, iron, zinc and other nutrients that conventional puffed rice lacks.
The new rice is "ideally suited for consumption as breakfast cereals, snack food and as part of nutrition bars for school lunch programs," the scientists said. "The balanced nutritional profile and use of staple crop byproducts such as broken rice makes these expanded crisps unique to the marketplace."