rice milling process

Dear readers, today I share with you the rice milling process. The next time you open a package of rice, you’ll know that a lot of work has gone into bringing it, from rice grown in a field by a farmer to brown rice being whitened in a rice mill.

1. pre-cleaning – The rice arrives at the rice mill with many impurities, such as soil, stones, straw and weed seeds. It is sent for pre-cleaning, that is, it is passed through sieves to remove these impurities and unfilled grains. For this purpose a combination of screens is used. First, the course screens remove objects that are larger than grains of rice, such as stones and straw. Fine screens then separate the rice grains from objects that are smaller than them, such as soil, weed seeds, and broken grains.
2. fired – Pre-cleaning does not remove all stones. The rice is then passed through a gravity table for this purpose.
3. Shelling/ Shelling – The husk is the hard outer layer that covers the rice. The previously cleaned rice is then sent to the hulling machine. There is more than one type of shelling machines: rubber roller shellers, steel shellers, and under-aisle disc shellers all do the same job. Shellers use friction to remove the shell. The rice passes across two surfaces, moving at different speeds. As you press hard against these surfaces, the unwanted shell comes off. The result is brown rice!
4. shell suction – A part of the rice retains its husk even after husking. (The amount of unhusked rice depends on the efficiency of the husker.) Therefore, the result of husking is a mixture of hulls, brown rice, unhusked rice grains, and even broken grains. The husk is removed and disposed of with a hulling vacuum.
5. rice separation – Next, the huskless paddy rice is separated from the brown rice, using a husk separator. These machines use the difference in gravity between brown rice and unhusked rice to separate the two. The rice grains are returned for husking.
6. Whitening – Now it’s time to turn brown rice into white. The brown bran is removed, along with the germ. Like the shell, the bran is also a hard shell, although its consumption is beneficial to human health. The germ is the reproductive part of the rice grain. There are many machines designed to whiten rice.
7. Polished – Polishing is done to improve the appearance of the rice grains. Both the bleaching and polishing processes cause the rice to break. This is because these processes apply pressure to the rice grains. A mist of water is often used to give the grains a clean, smooth appearance.
8. Length Rating – Now is the time to remove the broken pieces of rice, which vary greatly in size. A sieve separates these broken pieces from the “head rice”. (intact grains)
9. Mix/Mix – The first quality rice contains a minimum of broken grains. The better the quality, the fewer the number of broken parts. Broken pieces are also sold separately and are consumed in many parts of the world. Head rice is mixed with a fixed amount of broken grains in this step.
10. Weighing and bagging – Finally, it is time to fill the rice in jute bags and transport it to the vendor. It is first weighed, usually with a manual system, and then filled. It is labeled with details, such as the name of the variety and the manufacturer, the net weight, etc.