Over-processing causes China to lose more than 15 billion jin of grain every year
When one jin of paddy rice is processed into polished rice, 60 percent is usable and 40 percent becomes by-products. Over-processing causes China to lose more than 15 billion jin of grain every year. As market operators, how should grain-processing enterprises solve this problem? Recently, a reporter interviewed Hong Wanyi, general manager of Hubei Hongsen Grain and Oil Food Group, on the topic of reducing losses in grain processing.
Hongsen Group is located in Shayang County, Hubei Province, a major grain and oil county, and is a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization with an annual rice-processing capacity of 1 million tonnes. To solve the problem of low comprehensive utilization of by-products in traditional rice processing, Hongsen Group has vigorously developed food and health products.
From primary processing to deep processing
“Raising the added value of rice is the best way to reduce losses.” Hong Wanyi said the enterprise will focus its efforts to increase efficiency on developing the value of by-products from rice processing as much as possible, extracting everything that can be extracted.
Rice is the source of all kinds of nutritional products. Hongsen Group's breakthrough leap from primary processing to deep processing was not accidental, but the result of 27 years of unwavering dedication to grain production and processing by the team led by group chairman Hong Chuanlin. Hong Wanyi said the enterprise has formed a complete rice-processing industry chain, possesses a deep foundation in basic industries, and has all the conditions needed to broaden the value-added space of grain processing.
Hong Wanyi believes that if an enterprise wants to grow bigger and stronger and improve efficiency, it must innovate and transform, go deep and refined, and raise the added value of grain and oil products.
According to reports, from 100 jin of conventional primary rice processing, after hulling, milling, polishing and colour sorting, about 60-plus jin of polished rice is generally produced and sold directly as a commodity. About 40 jin of by-products remain, including about 28 jin of broken rice, 10 jin of rice bran and 2 jin of husk. In the past, by-products such as broken rice and rice bran were usually used as raw materials for winemaking and feed processing and could only be sold for 1-1.5 yuan/jin, while husks were used as fuel or discarded.
According to data, the nutrition of rice is mainly concentrated in the rice bran, which accounts for only 10 percent of the weight of paddy rice. Although polished rice after processing tastes good, its amino acid and oryzanol content is not high.
“Now, at Hongsen Group, high-quality rice bran oil, rice bran polypeptides and other foods and health products have been successfully developed one after another. After deep processing, the value of rice by-products has increased several dozen times.” Hong Wanyi said that in recent years the enterprise has accelerated industrial transformation and upgrading and broadened the layout of the entire grain and oil industry chain. Hongsen Health Food Industrial Park has completed the construction of modern factory buildings and supporting facilities in the Shayang Economic Development Zone and has entered e-commerce.
Maximizing added value
⟦NL> At present, the milling and polishing techniques in rice processing satisfy consumers' pursuit of rice taste, but they lose essential nutrients such as the germ. However, brown rice that has not been finely polished is acceptable when eaten occasionally, but it is hard for the mainstream consumer group to accept it if eaten over the long term. Is there a rice-processing method that takes into account both taste and nutrition? Hongsen's answer is: just add a few drops of Hongsen rice bran oil when cooking, and the nutrition of the germ is fully restored.
Paddy rice continuously produces rice bran during polishing. After years of exploration and technical improvement, Hongsen Group adopted a new low-temperature gas extraction process to refine rice bran into rice bran oil, which has the advantages of low cost, complete nutrition, a high flash point and little cooking fume. Once launched, it even approached the ranks of high-grade minor oils such as camellia oil and olive oil.
“The existing primary rice-processing production lines will no longer be expanded. Production lines to be built will mainly produce organic rice, snack foods and health products, focusing on the nutrition and health card and refining product added value to the maximum.” Hong Wanyi said.
In addition to its flagship product rice bran oil, Hongsen Group has also jointly developed with relevant scientific research institutions three patented health products: “rice bran polysaccharides”, “rice bran polypeptides” and “dietary fibre”. It will adopt a fully intelligent and enclosed control system at the latest domestic technological level to transform and upgrade rice bran, a by-product of grain processing, extract the active ingredients of the rice bran germ in paddy rice, and produce a series of functional health products that enhance immune function, lower blood lipids and blood sugar, and prevent and fight cancer.
Loss reduction starts from the source of green planting
The processing stage is very important, but the source of green planting is even more important. Good paddy rice is grown. Hong Wanyi introduced that Hongsen Group is laying out and building a “one core, two circles” production base. The “one core” is a 40,000-mu organic rice core planting base. On the basis of the existing 5,000-mu organic rice base, a doubling plan is being implemented to complete this target within the next 2 years. The “two circles” are a high-quality rice raw material guarantee circle and a supply circle. New improved rice varieties are being promoted throughout Shayang County to form a 1-million-mu high-quality rice raw material guarantee circle. At the same time, resources in other counties are further expanded to cover the surrounding areas and form a 2-million-mu high-quality rice raw material supply circle.
In these organic paddy rice planting bases, duck houses have been built and rice-duck co-cultivation is practised. Frequency-vibration lamps are installed in the fields to lure and kill moths, avoiding the use of pesticides and carrying out pollution-free production. Facilities for composting and blending organic fertiliser have also been built, and the “pig-biogas-fertiliser” ecological agricultural planting technique is practised.
The planting stage is green and organic, and the processing stage must be even more of a circular economy, energy-saving and environmentally friendly. In addition to using discarded rice husks to replace coal, saving 3.6 million yuan a year, in terms of water recycling, through equipment modifications, steam is returned to the furnace for use, which saves precious water resources and also saves heat energy consumption and fuel.
In recent years, Tangyin County in Henan Province, known as the “granary of northern Henan”, has always been in a leading position in Henan Province and even nationwide in grain processing, and it is home to numerous wheat-processing enterprises. A few days ago, a reporter visited Tangyin Jinmailang Flour Co., Ltd. and learned that in order to save grain and increase efficiency in the processing stage, in addition to introducing advanced grain-processing equipment and adopting the latest processing techniques, the enterprise, through measures such as developing new products and creating a staple food project, uses the power of the enterprise to guide the public to establish new concepts of healthy consumption.
“In the rural areas of Tangyin County, through creating a staple food project, we have set up steamed bun shops, noodle shops and flour exchange points. In the county's 298 administrative villages, there are 285 flour-use points, and this number will continue to increase. One purpose of doing this is to guarantee the quality and safety of flour throughout the county, and the other is to guide the public's understanding of refined flour and tell everyone that it is not the case that the more refined the flour, the higher its nutritional content.” Company general manager Guo Zhanlin told the reporter that what matters most now is still guiding people's consumption habits and getting them out of consumption misunderstandings. We do not emphasise how white the flour is; we pay more attention to taste, letting people know that a whiter steamed bun does not mean better flour.