"Named `beras analog` (analog rice), the product is made of local powder."Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - Researchers at the Bogor-based Agriculture Institute (IPB) in West Java have been successful in creating a food product which is almost like rice, an IPB director said.
"Named `beras analog` (analog rice), the product is made of local powder, which does not come from rice and wheat," Dr Slamet, the director of IPB`s F-Technopark Faculty, said here on Sunday.
He said that other researchers at universities and research centers called it artificial rice.
The food product is designed to have functional contents using local powder like sorghum, sago, tubers and other food ingredients such as fiber, anti-oxidants and other required materials, he said.
Slamet said countries overseas like China and the Philippines had been able to process groats into rice as fortification materials for the production of vitamin and certain mineral products.
"They produce it as material for, among others, ferrum fortification," Slamet said.
As regard to the technology used to produce the artificial rice, the IPB director said that Technopark used extrusion technology.
In general, the extrusion technology is able to carry out a series of processes like mixing, milling, cooking, cooling, drying and printing it.
According to Slamet, the artificial rice had several superiorities because is more durable, no need to wash it before cooking and could be cooked just like rice.
(T.A014/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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