Rice Washing Water Research Articles

Effects of soaking conditions on the texture of dried sea cucumber

ABSTRACT: Dried sea cucumber must first be soaked in water, then heated and finally left at 20°C for 24 h, this procedure being repeated several times in preparation for cooking. In the case of dried sea cucumber soaked in distilled water, it gradually increased in weight. After full-scale soaking twice, its weight increased to 7.6-fold the original weight, which softened it thoroughly. The water content after this soaking process was 94.5%, which is almost the same as that of raw sea cucumber. During the soaking process, not only was water absorbed, but components of the ingredients of sea cucumber were eluted into the soaking water. Among these components, ash was eluted fastest, next was glycosaminoglycan and last was collagen. In addition to distilled water, rice-washing water, a coarse-tea-infused solution and a potassium carbonate solution were used as the soaking solutions. Sea cucumber absorbed water and swelled in the potassium carbonate solution faster than in the other three solutions. Textural measurements and a sensory evaluation clarified that the softest sea cucumber resulted from the rice-washing water, and the hardest sea cucumber from the coarse tea.

Contact urticaria from rice

A 30-year-old man with atopic dermatitis had had erythema and itching of the hands after washing rice in water, though he had always eaten cooked rice without problems. Handling test with water used to wash regular rice was performed on abraded hands, and produced urticarial erythema after several minutes. Applications of water used to wash allergen-reduced rice were negative for urticarial reaction. Prick test with water used to wash regular rice was +++. However prick test reaction with water used to wash allergen-reduced rice was +. Histamine-release test of regular rice-washing water was grade 3 and that of allergen-reduced rice grade 1. In immunoblotting analysis with regular rice washing water, there were no bands with this patient. These results suggest that the allergen responsible for contact urticaria in this patient might be water-soluble, heat-unstable, and not contained in allergen-reduced rice.

洗米副生物の薬剤添加及びガンマー線照射による保存

洗米副生物の薬剤添加及びガンマー線照射による保存