Abstract
Rice flour has been used as an ingredient for making dango, daihuku-mochi and rice crackers in Japan. The quality of these food products appeared to be directly affected by the flour used. However, not much has been known about the quality factors of rice flour. Accordingly, we investigated the properties of rice flour prepared by two different methods : dry-milling and wet-milling. The distribution of particle size of rice flours was affected by the type of the milling machine used. The forms of particles of the rice flour were different in dry-milling and wet-milling. The particles of rice flour from dry-milling were observed as fragments of rice grains. The wet-milled flour particles were observed as a cluster of starch granules. Dango made from the wet-milled flour tasted better and was slow in hardening. From these results, we concluded that the property of rice flour was affected basically by the size and form of particles of the flour provided its starch was not highly damaged.
