The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Action Plan for Grain Conservation" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), and "walking out of the misunderstanding of polished rice and white noodles" was officially written into the "Plan". How can we get out of the misunderstanding of polished rice and white noodles? On November 1, the Beijing News reporter interviewed Dr. Liu Rui, chief analyst of wheat in the agricultural product market analysis and early warning team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Dr. Liu Rui of the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
What is the white noodle misunderstanding of polished rice?
"At present, most of the rice and noodles sold on the market are processed polished rice white noodles." Liu Rui said that rice is the seed of rice, including the peel, seed coat, embryo, endosperm and other parts, refined white rice is the product after multiple milling, mainly the endosperm part of the rice; wheat seeds mainly include three parts of the peel, embryo and endosperm, and flour is a fine powder made of endosperm milling. According to the requirements of the "Plan", improve the conversion rate of grain and oil processing, formulate and revise the processing standards for rations and edible oils such as wheat flour, improve the appropriate processing standards, reasonably determine the processing accuracy and other indicators, guide consumers to gradually get out of the dietary misunderstanding of excessive pursuit of "refined rice and white noodles", and improve the grain and oil production rate.
Regarding the misunderstanding of polished rice and white noodles mentioned in the "Plan", Liu Rui believes that it is more about making the utilization rate of grain and food higher. Previously, industry insiders introduced that taking rice as an example, rice processing generally has five processes - de-impurity, dehulling, de-inner film, de-impurity, de-embryo, that is, remove the iron, stone, soil and other debris in the rice, through the way of milling, remove the shell of the rice, get brown rice, and then use the milling method to remove the inner film, that is, the rice bran layer. After obtaining the germ rice, continue to remove impurities, screen out the broken shells, variegated rice, etc. left in the milling process, and finally through the embryo removal, grind off the germ, in order to get refined white rice. At the same time, in the processing of rice, some enterprises will carry out one to many polishing procedures, that is, through water, cooking oil and other liquids to carefully polish the rice, polished rice will become white and translucent, better appearance.
Generally speaking, 100 kilograms of rice, after dehulling, can produce about 80 kilograms of brown rice, remove the rice bran layer, there are about 70 kilograms, after removing the germ, there are about 65 kilograms left, remove the variegated rice, and leave about 60 kilograms. Every polishing time, almost 1-2 pounds is reduced. If polished 3 times, generally more than 50 pounds will be left. That is to say, after polishing refined white rice, the rice yield is more than 50%, and the polished white rice without polishing has a rice yield of about 60%.
Previous research results have shown that in the 1990s, the loss rate of the processing method of rice milled by farmers was 2.81%, and today, the loss rate of primary processing of grain is 1.18%. "This loss is actually relatively low." Liu Rui said that the processed rice noodles eventually entered people's tables, and the rice bran that was removed during processing would be used to make feed. From the perspective of full utilization of grain, there is no waste of quantity, but from the perspective of nutrition, the processed rice noodles will indeed have a certain loss of nutrients.
How to "get out of the misunderstanding of polished rice and white noodles"?
In an era of low productivity and food scarcity, refined food was only a luxury for a few people to eat. Taking wheat as an example, due to the regional environment, wheat characteristics, irrigation, agricultural technology and other factors, the previous yield was low, the stability was poor, and few people could afford to eat white noodles. It was not until the 1970s, affected by the promotion of scientific planting, the improvement of varieties, and the reform of land policy, wheat production gradually increased, grain began to become sufficient, finishing processing gradually became popular, and white-noodle food gradually became the staple food on the people's table.
In China, according to the different processing accuracy, flour and rice are also divided into different grades. According to the current effective standard "GB/T 1355-1986 wheat flour", according to the processing accuracy, flour is divided into special first class, special second class, standard powder, ordinary powder. Mainly the thickness and fineness, gluten content is different. According to the current effective standard "GB/T 1354-2018 rice", rice is mainly divided into two types: fine milling and suitable milling. Among them, the fine mill finger groove is basically skinless or has no skin line, and the cleaning of the rice embryo and grain surface cortex accounts for 80%-90%; or the skin retention degree is below 2.0%. Suitable milling refers to the dorsal groove with skin, and the residue of the grained cortex does not exceed 1/5 of the proportion of 75%-85%, of which japonica rice and high-quality japonica rice have embryonic rice grains below 20%; or the skin retention degree is 2.0%-7.0%.
How to "get out of the misunderstanding of polished rice and white noodles"? Liu Rui said that it is necessary to advocate consumers to choose more nutritious whole grain foods. Rice and flour are both grains, and whole grains and their foods are health-rich because they are richer in dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and functional actives, as well as lower saturated fats and cholesterol. Some products do lose some of their nutrients in finishing.
"At present, the promotion of whole grain food is widely promoted in bread, cakes, biscuits and other foods, and the audience, especially young people, is more widely accepted, but there is still a lot of room for traditional dumplings, steamed buns, noodles and other products, which is a matter of concept and eating habits." Liu Rui said that the relevant enterprises need to increase the promotion of whole grain food and better open up this market. Give consumers more whole grain food options when it comes to shopping.
"Finally, we must make better breakthroughs in technological innovation and reduce the loss of quantity and nutrition in the processing process." Liu Rui said.
According to the "Plan", by 2025, the grain-saving and loss-reducing measures in all links of the grain industry chain will be more hardened and refined, and more obvious results will be achieved in promoting grain-saving and loss-reduction, the system of grain-saving and loss-reduction system, the standard system and monitoring system will be basically established, the normal long-term governance mechanism will be basically sound, the "disc action" will be carried out in depth, the problem of food waste will be effectively curbed, and saving food and opposing waste will become a common practice in the whole society.
Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui
Edited by Tang Zheng Proofreader Li Shihui