METHOD FOR PRODUCING RICE POWDER AND RICE POWDER OBTAINED THEREBY

摘要

The present invention eliminates the need for power used for roll milling by significantly reducing the hardness of rice, and provides fine rice powder with good quality even when the rice is ground only with a jet mill. The present invention includes: a preprocessing step (5) of creating a number of fine cracks on the surface of an uncooked rice grain; a water-adding step (12) of increasing the water content of the rice grain having the fine cracks formed on the surface thereof; and a grinding step (19) of grinding, with a jet mill, the rice grain having absorbed water. That is, when water is added after the fine cracks are formed on the surface of the rice grain, the swelling of a compound starch grain proceeds remarkably faster than in the case of water being absorbed gradually through a germ. The rapid swelling increases the amount of strain in the structure of a cell wall, making it easy to break the strong structure of the cell wall and significantly reducing the hardness of the rice. At the time of grinding, due to the significant reduction in the hardness of the rice, the structure of the cell wall is easily broken and even a starch grain is finely ground.