RELATING RICE MILLING QUALITY CHANGES DURING ADSORPTION TO INDIVIDUALKERNEL MOISTURE-CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

Several varieties of rough rice that were either stored for an extende d period of time or freshly harvested were conditioned to initial mois ture contents ranging 10 to 17%. After the individual kernel moisture content distributions were measured, the samples were soaked in water at temperatures ranging from 10 to 40 degrees C. The samples were then dried and milled. The bulk critical moisture content, at which head r ice yield began to decline due to moisture adsorption, ranged from 12. 5 to 14.9%, depending on the variety, harvest moisture content, and st orage conditions. The kernel critical moisture content, determined fro m each sample from the cumulative kennel moisture content frequency di stribution, increase with increasing sample initial moisture content.