Zuo Zhongyu, Li Ting, Zhang Xinxia, Wang Li
School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China; National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China.
School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China; State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China; National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China; Jiangsu Provincial Research Center for Bioactive Product Processing Technology, Jiangnan University, Lihu Avenue 1800, Wuxi 214122, China.
Food Chem. 2025 Mar 15;468:142335. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142335. Epub 2024 Dec 3.
To enhance the stability in textural attributes of frozen cooked rice, this study has found and proposed a new strategy: retaining the rice germ in milling process. Each rice germ is comparable to a native lipid-rich microcapsule attached to the endosperm part. In the gelatinization process, leached germ oil was reabsorbed in the outer layer of rice granule. Small lipidic molecules complexed with amylose and formed type I complex, while big lipidic molecules formed separate oil phase in the matrix. This mixed construction endowed cooked germ-remained milled rice with smaller magnitude of change in the water holding capacity and the ratio of stickiness/hardness, and fewer freezable water content than white rice. This work opens an attractive field to reinforce the structural stability of cooked rice against freezing stress without exogenous additives, and benefits to screen suitable raw materials for the development of frozen rice products.
