Investigating the influence of selected texture-improved pretreatment techniques on storage stability of wholegrain brown rice: Involvement of processing-induced mineral changes with lipid degradation.

This work aimed at investigating the effects of emerging texture-improved processing techniques including high hydrostatic pressure (HHP; 150-450MPa/10min), high-intensity ultrasonication (HIU; 17.83W·cm-2/30min) and germination (37°C/36h) pretreatments on lipid hydrolysis and oxidation development of wholegrain brown rice (WBR) during storage, in an attempt to ascertain a possible link between lipid degradation and the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that HHP and HIU treatments enhanced lipid hydrolysis and oxidation as indicated by the formation of free fatty acids (FFA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) respectively, whereas an opposite pattern was observed for germination. Storage process rather than after immediate treatments observed an increase in lipid oxidation of HHP and HIU-processed samples, which was related to processing-induced liberation of minerals. Quantitative and qualitative characterization via inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) analysis confirmed the shifts of mineral distribution in WBR grains in response to different pretreatments. The WBR-derived lipase was activated by Ca2+, and μ-XRF mapping indicated calcium enrichment in pericarp/aleurone layer and its mobilization to embryo during germination process where magnesium and manganese were significantly reduced. Multivariate analysis revealed a close relationship between increased lipid degradation and minerals including magnesium and manganese. This is the first time for reporting the effects of selected texture-improved techniques on lipid stability of WBR grains across storage process as well as validating the involvement of processing-induced mineral release in lipid degradation.