Dec. 19, 2012 A new process for blowing up grains of rice
produces a super-nutritious form of puffed rice, with three
times more protein and a rich endowment of other nutrients that
make it ideal for breakfast cereals, snack foods and nutrient
bars for school lunch programs, scientists are reporting. Their
study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry. Syed S.H. Rizvi and colleagues explain that
commercial puffed rice is made by steam extrusion. An extruder
squeezes rice flour mixed with water through a narrow opening at
high temperature and pressure. On exiting the nozzle, the rice
puffs up as steam expands and escapes. The process, however, can
destroy heat-sensitive nutrients. The scientists looked for a
way to avoid that loss and enrich rice with protein and other
nutrients during the puffing process. They turned to a process
that uses supercritical carbon dioxide, which has been used for
making decaffeinated coffee and in other applications. The
scientists describe using the process to