Palatable and Bio-Functional Wheat/Rice Products Developed from Pre-Germinated Brown Rice of Super-Hard Cultivar EM10

Abstract

It became possible to produce high-quality and bio-functional wheat/rice bread and wheat/rice noodles by blending, pre-germinated and cooked brown rice of a super-hard cultivar with wheat flour. Super-hard rice (SHR) is not suitable for table rice because of its low palatability. Nevertheless, it was found to be suitable as a blending material for bread-making or noodle-making due to its hard texture and high content of resistant starch. We developed a novel rapid germination method to improve the quality and to save the time needed for germination. By blending pre-germinated and cooked SHR (30% w/w on a dry basis) as a rice gel with wheat flour (70% w/w on a dry basis), the bread became very soft and any hardening after bread-making was markedly retarded. Similarly, blending pre-germinated and cooked SHR as cooked a rice gel with wheat flour gave high-quality noodles with a similar texture to that of durum semolina noodles. The resistant starch of the SHR-blended bread and noodles was also markedly increased. White waxy rice (9%) soaked and cooked with the pre-germinated brown rice of SHR (21%) produced a rice gel that was very useful as a material for bread-making and noodle-making by blending with wheat flour (70%) to prepare soft, tasty and bio-functional wheat/rice bread and wheat/rice noodles.