Cerealor Sugar Case Studies.

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Title: Cerealor Sugar Case Studies – Rice                                                    Date: 21.11.01

Botany

Rice is a semiaquatic, annual grass of the family Graminae, genus Oryza. It has a panicle inflorescence with one floret per spikelet (Marshall & Wadsworth., 1993). Furthermore, it has a perfect flower (both male and female), which consists of two interlocking hulls, six anthers and a single ovary. Most importantly, rice is naturally self-pollinating (Marshall & Wadsworth., 1993). Rice growers in some countries such as USA use pure line cultivars whereas most of them in China use hybridisation.

Taxonomy

Cultivated rice is referring to either Oryza sativa L. or Oryza glaberrima Steud (Marshall & Wadsworth., 1993). However, O. sativa is the predominant species and O. glaberrima is grown only in Africa on a limited scale (Marshall & Wadsworth., 1993).

Oryza sativa is a tremendously variable species whish has worldwide distribution. Kato et al. (1928) classified these varieties into indica, the tropical race and japonica types, the temperate race. However, Morinaga (1954) proposed another group called javanicas. Several authors have ranked javanicas at the same taxonomic level as indicas and japonicas. (Singh et al, 2000)

Domestication

The date and geographical location of the first cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) is unclear. Nonetheless, domestication of wild rice probably started around 8,000 to 10,000 years ago (Greenland, 1997). Historical evidences shown that rice was simultaneously and independently cultivated in an area extending roughly from central India, through northern Burma, northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and into southern China.(Greenland, 1997). From this region, the cultivation of rice had spread to Indonesia, the Philippines and northern Australia. Later, traders carried the grain throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and finally the New World.(Greenland, 1997)

Production 

Statistics

According to Singh et al 2000, China is the largest producer of rice in the world currently and next followed by India. China accounts for 21 per cent of the total global rice production.

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Please refer to Appendix 1.

Varieties

Table 1: Rice products and uses for human foods (Esminger. et al, 1995)

Timing

Please refer to Appendix 2.

Location

Please refer to Appendix 3.

Processing Quality Aspects

Milling of rice is required to convert the rough rice into human foods. The process aimed to separate the outer portions from the inner endosperm without much breakage. (Esminger et al, 1995)). There are several stages in the rice milling process. These include cleaning (usually parboiling), dehulling, pearling, polishing and grading.

With reference to Marshall ...

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