Puffed rice

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Puffed rice
a rice waffle

Puffed rice is from rice produced puffed food . For this, rice grains are heated under pressure with steam, whereby the traditional production methods differ greatly.

Puffed rice is the result of the reaction between starch and moisture when heated in the shell of the grain. In contrast to corn, rice grains are naturally low in moisture and must first be treated with steam. Puffed rice can be made by heating the steamed kernels either with oil or in the oven. The rice puffed in this way is crunchy and is called "crispy rice". Oven crispy rice is used for breakfast cereals (e.g. Rice Krispies) and chocolate bars (e.g. Lion or Nestlé Crunch).

Rice can also be puffed by making a rice dough and removing small pellets that are then quickly heated. The moisture in the dough boils in a flash and puffs up the rice.

In industrial production using the cannon process, rice with a water content of around 14 percent is heated to around 220 ° C in a closed vessel, the so-called puffed rice cannon. The resulting pressure is kept up to approx. 1.2 M Pa in order to then suddenly reduce it to normal air pressure. As a result, the water contained in the grain evaporates, the grain puffs up to several times its original volume and the starch almost completely gelatinizes. Wheat is processed into puffed wheat using the same process .

Puffed rice is a traditional ingredient in the Indian subcontinent in particular . In western countries, puffed rice is usually sold straight in the form of a round biscuit (as a so-called rice waffle ), with sesame seeds or coated with chocolate . Colorful, sweet puffed rice is popular with children as a snack; this is sold loose in bags.

Like rice, puffed products such as rice cakes and rice-based baby foods such as rice flakes are also contaminated with arsenic , in the majority between 100 and 350 micrograms per kg (for comparison: the maximum value for drinking water in the EU is 10 micrograms per liter). In small children, arsenic intake from food containing rice is 2 to 3 times higher than in adults, based on body weight, so the Bavarian LGL recommends no more than a maximum of 20 grams of rice cakes per week for children up to three years of age.

Even heavy metals such as cadmium were detected in rice cakes, as well as high levels of acrylamide .

Similar foods

Other puffed foods are puffed corn ( popcorn ), puffed wheat or puffed millet.

Web links

Wiktionary: Puffed rice  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. What is a Rice Krispy? What is it made out of and how do they make it? (English) , accessed on November 29, 2018.
  2. Ternes, Täufel, Tunger, Zobel: Food Lexicon . Behr's Verlag, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89947-165-2 , p. 1491 .
  3. a b Test: Reiswaffeln , Öko-Test June 2012, accessed on November 2, 2014.
  4. ↑ Analysis of inorganic arsenic in child food , Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety from September 4, 2012, accessed on November 2, 2014.
  5. a b Rice cakes contain arsenic, cadmium and acrylamide: Suppliers respond to criticism ( memento from November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), rtl.de from September 14, 2014, accessed on August 18, 2020.