PARBOILING ABILITY OF RICE KERNELS FROM 7 CULTIVARS GROWN IN CAMARGUE

Seven rice cultivars (Rocca, Lido, Miara, Bonnet Bell, Ariete, Onda an d Ringo) grown in Camargue during three seasons (1988, 1989 and 1990) were screened for their parboiling ability. Miara was the worst cultiv ar : after parboiling, the yield of broken rice was important and grai n cooking quality was not materially improved. Depending on whether co nditions during grain maturation, the cooking quality of parboiled gra ins from Lido and Ariete is variable and occasionaly too low. The parb oiling treatment must be adapted to raw rice quality. Particularly, st eeping time should be reduced for rices with a high swelling capacity and the duration and/or temperature of steaming treatment should be in creased for raw rices with low percentages of translucent grains.