Cooking Qualities of Thin Layered Humidified Paddy

A thin layer dryer was modified by replacing the heating section of the dryer was replaced with humidification chamber. The equipment consists of a blower which sucks ambient air, which was passed through heater coils. There was a nozzle located after the heating unit, which sprays water as tiny droplets. The heated air was passed on the tiny droplets of the water, now the air gets humidified and is passed on to the paddy which was placed in a perforated tray as a thin layer. After undergoing humidification (soaking), steaming, drying and milling, the cooking qualities of the humidified paddy were determined. The extent of humidification of paddy was studied by knowing the cooking characteristics of the parboiled rice. The different cooking qualities determined during the study were cooking time, water uptake ratio, grain elongation ratio on cooking.