TREATMENT OF RICE GRAIN

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the efficient processing treatment of all the rough rice grains without waste by grading raw rough rice grains into cracked raw rough rice grains and whole raw rough rice grains without cracking, then drying the whole raw rough rice grains and pregelatinizing the cracked raw rough rice grains. SOLUTION: Raw rough rice grains 1 are graded into cracked raw rough rice grains 2 and whole raw rough rice grains 3 without cracking and the drying treatment of the whole raw rough rice grains 3 is carried out. The pregelatinizing treatment of the cracked raw rough rice grains 2 is performed. An apparatus for irradiating each grain of the rough rice grains 12 released from a chute with light, discriminating the cracked raw rough rice grains with a difference in quantity of transmitting light from the former half and the latter half of the raw rough rice grains caused by the cracking and then grading and removing the cracked raw rough rice grains 2 by jetting from a jetting nozzle is preferably used for the grading of the raw rough rice grains 1. The whole raw rough rice grains 3 are dried and subsequently graded into cracked dried rough rice grains 4 and the whole dried rough rice grains 5. The hulling and grain polishing treatments of the whole dried rough rice grains 5 are preferably further performed to process the whole dried rough rice grains 5 into milled rice grains. The cracked raw rough rice grains 2 are directly pregelatinized and processed into perboiled rice grains or the like or dried at a high speed to provide cracked dried rough rice grains 6, which are preferably stored and then together with the similarly stored cracked dried rough rice grains 4 and preferably subjected to pregelatinizing treatment.