Course : Grain QualityModule 4 : Rice MillingLesson 1 : Introduction to the milling process and its outputs

Good Equipment

Skilled Miller

Good Paddy Rice

If Then

you have good quality paddy in a well-maintained mill that is operated by a skilled miller,

the mill will produce high quality head rice.

you use poor quality paddy,

the mill will always produce poor quality milled rice, despite the skill or the miller or maintenance of the mill.

the miller is not skilled,

the use of good milling equipment and good quality paddy does not guarantee a high quality product

Course : Grain QualityModule 4 : Rice MillingLesson 2 : What are the different types of rice mills?

The test mill is a small and portable mill designed to test samples of paddy rice for milling quality. A test mill might be used by a paddy rice buyer who wants to see how well a quantity of paddy rice mills before buying it. Test mills are also ideal for lab environments where small amounts of paddy rice need to be prepared for experimentation. 

A rice test mill.

TEST MILL

Course : Grain QualityModule 4 : Rice MillingLesson 2 : What are the different types of rice mills?

A village mill.

VILLAGE MILL

Village-type rice mills can be found in rural communities and are used for service milling paddy of farmers for home consumption. In many cases, village mills are adaptations of the Engleberg coffee huller from the United States, modified for milling rice.

These mills, however, are notorious for breaking paddy grain. Because of the high breakage, the total milled rice recovery is 53-55%, and head rice recovery is on the order of 30% of the milled rice.

Course : Grain QualityModule 4 : Rice MillingLesson 2 : What are the different types of rice mills?

Commercial milling systems mill the paddy in stages, and hence are called multi-stage or multi-pass rice mills. The objective of commercial rice milling is to reduce mechanical stresses and heat buildup in the grain, thereby minimizing grain breakage and producing uniformly polished grain. Compared to village-level systems, the commercial milling system is a more sophisticated system configured to maximize the process of producing well-milled, whole grains.

A commercial milling system.

COMMERCIAL MILL

Course : Grain QualityModule 4 : Rice MillingLesson 4 : Let’s mill some rice

RICE MILL SIMULATION

In the rice simulation below, read and follow steps 1, 2, 3.