Evaluation of sensory, physicochemical properties and Consumer preference of black rice and their products.

This study was aimed to evaluate the physicochemical, textural, sensory and antioxidative attributes of various rice products such as boiled rice, beaten rice, popped rice, puffed rice and raw milled rice, prepared from the Indian black rice cultivars Chakha (CH), Kalobhat (KB), Mamihunger (MA) and Manipuri Black (MN). A popular white rice variety Swarna Sub-1 (SW) was considered as control. Significant differences in most of the physicochemical and cooking parameters of raw rice were observed across different cultivars. The head rice recovery, amylose content, elongation ratio (ER) and kernel length after cooking of MA were most satisfactory among the black rice cultivars and are found to be 50.67%, 17.6%, 1.87 and 10.10 mm respectively, while popped rice of MA recorded highest length (10.83 mm) and elongation ratio (ER; 2.01). MA showed the highest adhesiveness (11.18 mJ) in boiled rice but hardness (183.53 N) was medium in raw rice. Other textural quality varied differentially according to the various products and cultivars. The highest a* value was obtained from puffed rice of MA (6.61) but L value was highest in raw rice of MN. Popped and boiled rice of MA displayed higher DPPH-antioxidant activity (88.74% and 84.74% respectively) as compared to all other products. The raw rice of KB registered higher anthocyanin (57.23 mg/100 g) content while boiled rice of SW recorded the least (0.21 mg/100 g). A survey on the consumer preference of these products indicated that boiled rice was usually preferred in lunch and dinner by most of the consumers whiles other products in breakfast. With respect to most of the traits, MA showed the good potential for rice Industry as well as for breeding material.