| Author | Nguyen Viet Anh |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.AE-99-13 |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | This study evaluated the actual operations of six rice mills and eight rice processing units in Cantho Province, Vietnam. Some remarkable observations of the rice milling industry were also revealed. In Vietnam, rice milling process is widely implemented in two distinguished stages, which are normally carried out by two groups of miller: small-scale millers and large scale millers. The small-scale or private traders start their business by dehulling paddy into brown rice or then partially whitened it into semi-whitened rice. Thereafter they sell this rice to large-scale or better-equipped millers who will then re-process this partially-whitened rice into final white rice for export. This second stage of processing is known as the "reverse process". The two-stage processing of rice in general offered an obstacle to quality control. However, there are several advantages resulting from this practice. These include: (1) the very low cost of milling (approximately US $7/ton), (2) the large number of rice mills and private traders and millers who play important roles in the distribution and processing of rice, especially in remote areas, and (3) continuing fairly high price of broken rice due to local demand and export. In view of the milling of paddy in actual operation at relatively high moisture content (MC), the effects of MC on head rice yield (HRY) and whiteness index (WI) of milled rice were also investigated in laboratory. The HRY decreased from about 51.3% to 45.3% when initial MC of paddy was increased from 13.5% to 18.1% (w.b.), respectively. This confirmed the apparent reduction in HRY during first-stage processing of paddy at relatively high MC range. In contrast, there was a significant improvement in the WI of milled rice from about 34.8 to 40.8% with increase MC, possibly due to ease in bran removal. The effects of MC in approximate ranges of 13.5 to 14.5 % and 14.4 to 15.5% (w.b.) on HRYs obtained from actual operation of three mills were also investigated. It was shown that the HRYs were reduced from 46.1%to42.9% due to increase in the MC of paddy. Comparison of six mill and eight processing units was based mainly on the HRYs when milling paddy into white rice, or re-processing partially-whitened rice containing known percent of brokens into final white rice having 5% broken. The HRYs were found significantly different between conventional process used normally and the "reverse process" adopted in Vietnam, which evidently resulted in lower HRYs. |
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agricultural and Food Engineering (AE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Jindal, Vinod K. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Athapol Noomhorm ;Rakshit, Sudip K. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - (Sida) |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999 |