Why we’re not getting the best out of rice

WE’RE eating the wrong part of rice – because the best bit is thrown away, experts claim.

They said the husks used as animal feed are highly nutritious and could be a new superfood.

Rice bran – the grain’s covering – is a rich source of proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins.

Although some small firms sell rice bran as an alternative to wheat or oat bran, producers say it is one of the world’s most wasted resources, with 60million tonnes dumped each year.

In other cases it is removed from the grain during processing to be used as animal feed.

But it could be a useful health food, added to cereals, baked in bread or cakes, or turned into

‘Fighting depression’

smoothies. US researchers at Colorado State University showed that rice bran was particularly high in the B vitamins – thiamine, niacin and B6 – which are vital to energy production, cardiovascular health and combating depression.

The scientists used a technique called food metabolomics – or foodomics – which identifies and measures the quantity of different molecules in a food that boost metabolism. They found 453 in three rice varieties, including 65 shown to have potential medicinal and health attributes and 16 that had not been reported in rice bran before.

Professor Elizabeth Ryan, whose work is published in the scientific journal Rice, said: ‘Rice bran could deliver more than 400 individual compounds when consumed and it is likely that many of them function in a teamwork manner to deliver health benefits.’