Ohmic heating for cooking rice: Electrical conductivity measurements, textural quality determination and energy analysis

Abstract

Abstract In this study, an innovative technique, namely ohmic heating was applied in rice cooking and compared with conventional method using electric rice cooker. Four types of rice samples including white rice of two varieties (KDML105 and Sao Hai), brown rice and germinated brown rice of one variety (KDML105) were used. Electrical conductivities of mixtures between rice samples and 0.1 M salt solution at various ratios were measured. Empirical models were developed for predicting electrical conductivities of rice samples as a function of temperatures. Textural properties of cooked rice samples and energy consumption were compared between ohmic and conventional cooking methods. The purposes of this work were to (1) study the possibility of applying ohmic method in rice cooking and (2) compare between cooking rice by ohmic and conventional method. The results revealed that it is possible to apply ohmic method for cooking all rice samples by using 0.1 M salt solution in the mixtures. The electrical conductivities of white rice (KDML105), white rice (Sao Hai), brown rice and germinated brown rice (KDML105) mixtures were 0.246–0.900, 0.375–1.005, 0.617–1.370 and 0.485–1.182 S/m respectively. The rice cooked by ohmic method had significantly different textural properties from that cooked by electric rice cooker. The magnitude of difference depended on the rice types. The electrical energy consumption of ohmic cooking system was approximately 73–90% of energy required for conventional rice cooker.