‘Rice Bread’ to tackle food crisis

Researchers at the Matara-based Harischandra Mills Ltd have come up with a major breakthrough to tackle the global food crisis – a rice-bread product after years of research. ‘Rice Bread’ is a form of the wheat bread that is used commonly in the country, but incorporates rice flour instead of wheat flour. According to S.B. Navaratne, Quality Assurance Manager of Harischandra Mills and lead researcher of the project, many local labs have been attempting this for some time.

“The maximum amount of rice flour they have been able to incorporate in bread has been about 30%-40% to my knowledge. We have been able to incorporate close to 75%-80%,” he said, adding: “It is a great achievement”. The researchers are in the process of patenting the process.

The key constituent difference between the two types of bread is the component Gluten, which is found in wheat flour but not rice flour. Gluten gives the bread the stickiness required as well as the cell-like structure of the loaves.

After research and technical knowledge harnessed via the Internet, Navaratne has conceptualized “Force Gelatinization”, a process which introduces water molecules into the starch of the flour and which, using heat, allows the bread to gain the appearance it requires. However, 25% of wheat flour has been left for adhesiveness.

The Rice Bread has the same nutritional value as wheat bread although the protein content in the latter is said to be more while the former has more Vitamin B. In its form, Navaratne says Rice Bread is the firmer of the two and has a sponge-like texture, while also being able to cut into slices as thin as five ‘mm’ without breaking apart, unlike wheat bread.

In the face of the rice crisis in Sri Lanka, Navaratne says that the “rice brokens” can be used for the manufacture of the bread. These are the broken grains that cannot be cooked or eaten and which are often used by millers as animal feed. He believes that the population of the country is reducing due to the growth rate which is below 2%, in the future; the situation will stable enough for the paddy producers to supply for this added demand, despite harvest problems.

The main advantage here for the country as a whole would be the cut in the spending used on wheat flour imports. The Central Bank says the country imported wheat worth US$ 233.9 million in 2007. Also, the Rice Bread takes close to 20-30 minutes to bake as opposed to wheat bread which takes 35-40 minutes, according to Navaratne.

This signals a long-term saving in energy. Overall, the production time of the Rice Bread is less, for it takes almost one and a half hours less than its predecessor to ferment outside the oven. A number of innovations are in the pipeline to improve the project. The Harischandra Mills researchers are looking into producing red Rice Bread, which is healthier and is bound to have more of a demand among patients with Diabetes, as red rice flour has more water soluble fiber and is a popular substitute for health-watchers.

Also, Navaratne and his team are trying to eliminate wheat flour completely from the equation. “We have an idea of replacing the wheat flour with plant extract, but that will take at least two or three years of research and we have to see if those extracts are edible,” he said.

The price of the Rice Bread will be priced alongside that of wheat bread at approximately Rs. 35, Navaratne said. However it will fluctuate with rice prices that is hoped would be lower than wheat prices which are fluctuating and are currently very high in exporting countries and specifically the US market.