Processing Raw Rice Bran to Potential Functional Food for Human Consumption

Background: Rice bran despite its nutritious value is largely underutilized. It is partly used for edible oil extraction and as animal feed or discarded as garbage. The present study was carried out with the objective of developing rice bran into a functional food ingredient for human consumption. Methods: The collected rice bran was exposed to four different treatments that included application of edible acid for activation of phytase, followed by drying at different temperatures to inactivate lipase. Standard biochemical methods were used to analyze the nutrients, anti nutrients and acid value. Result: Processing led to the reduction of phytic acid up to 43.6% and acid value up to 85.2% in comparison to raw rice bran (control) together with observation of absence of microbial load. Moreover, the processing led to the development of potential functional product with the better retention of ash, fiber, phenolic compound and crude protein content of the raw rice bran. The organoleptic evaluation revealed that the processed product can be utilized as ready-to-cook food ingredient, which might help to improve nutrition.