Parboiled rice is nothing but ‘par’-tially ‘boiled’ rice. In other words, it is rice precooked within the husk in a limited amount of water so as not to disturb the size and shape of the grain and then dried back.
The purpose of the process is to produce physical, chemical, and organoleptic modifications in the cereal, with economic, nutritional and practical advantages.
In parboiling process the water-soluble substances - vitamins and minerals are dissolved and spread throughout the grain thus altering their distribution and concentration among its various parts. The milling and polishing of raw rice result in losses of 75% of vitamin B1, 56% of riboflavin and 63% of niacin, whereas after parboiling, these losses are reduce by 58%, 35% and 11% respectively.
Parboiling involves soaking pay in water for a short time followed by heating once or twice in steam and drying before milling.
Parboiling of rice
