Changes in physical, cooking, textural properties and crystallinity upon iron fortification of red rice (Jyothi)

The present study is an investigation, into one of the varieties of paddy (Jyothi) its fortification with sodium iron EDTA salt, its physical properties, cooking characteristics, color, texture and characterization studies. Fortification was done at two concentrations 1.88 g/kg (T1 corresponding Iron content 0.25 g/Kg) and 3.39 g/kg (T2 corresponding Iron content 0.45 g/Kg). It was found that the iron content increased 2.5 folds after fortification, as compared to control sample. The results revealed that, there was significant difference between the physical properties of rice in the control, fortified brown and milled rice. The cooking parameters for control and fortified brown rice viz. cooking time, volume expansion water uptake were quite close to the control sample. The cooking time for fortified rice was 1-2 min high as compared to control, other parameters remained same. In case of milled rice, the cooking time and volume expansion for control milled rice and fortified was almost same; however the water uptake was higher for fortified milled rice as compared to control milled rice. The texture of fortified brown rice was hard as compared to fortified milled rice, although the taste was found satisfactory. The colour was significantly different in brown and milled rice. X-ray diffraction results revealed the polycrystalline nature of the fortified sample, was somewhat less crystalline as compared to control sample.