At present, the pace of people’s life is accelerating, and the demand for convenient staple food is increasing. The variety of existing staple food convenience food is less, it is difficult to meet the diverse and nutritional needs of different groups of people. China has a large population, rice as the staple food of the population base is large, the demand for convenient rice is huge. With the continuous solution of various problems in the production of convenient rice and the development of relevant supporting industries, people’s acceptance of convenient rice will greatly increase, consumption will continue to rise, convenient rice development prospects are very bright.
In addition, with the marketization development of convenient rice, a single convenient rice is difficult to meet the consumption needs of different people, diversified, nutritious and healthy convenient rice will be favored by consumers. The rapid development of instant rice has greatly promoted the rice processing and staple food instant food industry, which is a revolutionary innovation and upgrading of the rice industry. Instant rice is bound to enter millions of households and be loved by different people.
Convenient rice is a kind of convenient rice set food with automatic heating function without open fire and boiling water. The product is mainly composed of food package (box of rice and delicious vegetables, bags of vegetables), heating (heating bag and heating water bag), environmental protection and high temperature resistant packaging box and accessories (outer packaging box, napkin, special rice spoon, etc.). Eating only when the fever must be package with water as for the packaging with this (in 3 ~ 5 seconds to heat up, temperature is up to 150 ℃ or so, the steam temperature is up to about 200 ℃), can be in 8 minutes automatic heating food food inside the box, heat preservation time up to 3 hours, the process of heating without any pollution, environmental protection, safety, health, easy to carry.
Convenient rice is the introduction of modern rice innovation twin screw extrusion engineering production technology, so that the starch chain of rice has changed, to ensure the integrity of rice grain, pressure sterilization, aseptic packaging, high temperature sterilization vacuum preservation process, without adding any preservatives, to ensure that rice and dishes can stay fresh for a year. The packaging of convenient rice is made of non-toxic and pollution-free edible grade plastic, with fast heat conduction, low oxygen permeability (the so-called oxygen permeability refers to measure the degree of oxygen through the protective layer, which directly affects the freshness) and high freshness, and the compound vacuum layer can ensure good food freshness effect. The “self-heating” function of convenient rice is realized by using a specially prepared heating agent to react with water and release heat energy smoothly through chemical reaction. This technology has the advantages of rapid and durable heating and low production cost. Reaction process reactants do not contact food, meal box after 120℃ high temperature sterilization, long shelf life. After cooking for 8 minutes, the food will be completely heated, without any damage to the nutrition of the food.
Convenient rice is especially suitable for the army, railway, sea transportation, tourism, office buildings and other people’s dining needs, is another revolution in today’s food industry. Traditional convenience food needs to be soaked in boiling water before it can be eaten. Some special people, such as field adventure, tourism, military and police on duty, cannot eat it without boiling water. Self-heating rice without boiling water or thermal electricity, tear the outer package, pour the purified water bag inside on the heating bag, water and heating bag will automatically mix, steamed rice and dishes, 8-15 minutes to eat.
With the rapid development of social economy, people’s pace of life is accelerating, and the market demand for convenience food is increasing. Among convenient foods, convenient rice has the characteristics of convenience, and can meet people’s nutritional needs and dietary habits. Therefore, convenient rice is widely welcomed by people and has a very broad market prospect. Self-heating instant rice can heat itself without electricity or an open flame, which brings great convenience to people.
From food to enjoyment, Chinese people’s demands for eating rice are quietly changing. Driven by the tide of consumption upgrading, rice is becoming diversified and colorful for Chinese people. In October 2018, Tmall Super Category Day jointly released the 2018 Rice Category Consumption Trend Report with the authoritative media New Weekly. The report shows that Chinese rice consumption is showing typical “internal enjoyment” characteristics — from satisfying “full” to emphasizing “eating well”; From wanting to “eat better” to wanting to “eat healthier”. Based on the comprehensive consumer demand of trendy experience, convenient processing, personalized customization, quality safety, production area traceability and so on. Therefore, in addition to convenient rice, there are more diversified categories such as nutrient-fortified rice, functional rice and so on.
The production technology of convenient rice is advanced double screw extrusion technology.
Extrusion instant rice is made of artificial instant rice with rice texture by drying and cooling, after the material is pretreated (crushing, humidifying, mixing and strengthening), an extruder is used to complete the mixing, curing, crushing, sterilization and molding processes in one step. The machine used to produce instant rice by extruding has experienced the development process from single screw extruder to twin screw extruder. The process process is roughly the same, specifically: broken rice (or rice)→ crushing → sieving → compounding → tempering → high temperature extrusion cooking → curing material → cold pressing forming → drying → cooling → finished product.
Compared with the traditional way of producing instant rice, the production of instant rice by using the double screw extrusion processing technology has the following characteristics:
(1) Greatly improve the processing technology, shorten the process flow, production and processing of high degree of mechanization and automation, cost reduction, is convenient rice upgrade products;
(2) The production process is simple, avoids soaking and cooking in the traditional process, saves a lot of water and electricity energy, and the products are safe and environmentally friendly with good preservation performance;
(3) Broken rice can be used for production to improve the comprehensive benefits of the rice industry chain;
(4) The diet nutrition of convenient rice is balanced and reasonable. During the production of convenient rice, a series of varieties of convenient rice can be produced by adding group B vitamins, resistant starch, dietary fiber, protein, minerals and trace elements as well as various functional factors and nutrients;
(5) Less loss of nutrients, food is easier to digest and absorb, and the production process is stable, food quality and health safety is guaranteed.
