Effect of Steaming on Bending Strength and Milling Quality ofHigh Yield Rice Variety

Steaming is a shortened method of processing that is applied to improve the quality of rice. A two factorial experiment in completely randomized design (CRD) was used to investigate the effects of steaming on bending strength, head rice percentage and color of Gohar rice variety. In this study, two selected factors were as follows: initial moisture content (IMC) at 3 levels (14, 17, 20 percent, wet basis) and steaming duration at 5 levels: without steaming (control) and steaming in atmospheric pressure with duration of 5, 10, 20 and 30 min. The results showed that with increasing the steaming duration from 5 to 30 min, bending strength increased from 24.3 Mpa to 31.4 Mpa for paddy with IMC of 17% and from 24.8 to 32.2 Mpa for paddy with IMC of 20%. In both IMC (17 and 20 %), steaming for 30 min led to increase head rice, 47.53% and 49.09 % respectively, compared to control. Rice whiteness decreased and rice yellow index (b) increased. Regarding color changes and for Gohar, the high yield rice variety, steaming for 10 min can be proposed for paddy with IMC of 20±1% and 20 min for paddy with IMC of 17±1%.