Quick cooking rice and process for making the same

Claim 1

A continuous process for producing a quick cooking rice consisting essentially of the following steps: (a) placing a layer of rice at a depth of about 3 mm to about 10 mm on a perforated conveyor belt within a closed chamber; (b) spraying the rice as it moves on the conveyor belt with alternate intermittent sprays of water and steam a sufficient number of times to substantially completely gelatinize the rice so as to have a moisture content of about 52 weight percent to about 73 weight percent and a temperature of about 87° C. to about 95° C., each water spray having a duration of about 5 seconds to about 40 seconds, each steam spray having a duration of about 0.5 minute to about 4 minutes, the steam being at a pressure of about 3.8 kg/cm 2 to about 6 kg/cm 2 and at a temperature of about 135° C. to about 160° C.; (c) transferring the gelatinized rice while it moves on the conveyor belt without agitation to a predrying section within the chamber; (d) predrying the gelatinized rice to a moisture content of about 25 weight percent to about 35 weight percent by passing it through the predrying section having a temperature of about 100° C. to about 140° C. for a duration of about 2 to about 3 minutes; and (e) finally drying the predried rice to a moisture content of about 10 to about 14 weight percent by passing the predried rice through a final drying section within the chamber heated to a temperature of about 50° C. to about 70° C. for a duration of about 20 minutes to about 30 minutes, the rice so produced being suitable for consumption after swelling in hot, rather than boiling water for about 5 minutes.