Guide to Rice Factory Milling Equipment & Processing in Thailand

Rice is revered in Thailand not just as a staple meal but also as a sacred plant with its energy, life, and soul. The whole nation of Thailand often engages in a variety of exceptional cultural rites and rituals, including the Royal Ploughing Ceremony, the Morale Blessing Ceremony, and Phosop, from planting through harvesting. All of these rituals have something to do with rice and the Thai people. With global demand for agricultural commodities likely to rise further, rice growers in Thailand must embark on a modernization program for their grain storage and processing facilities. This website will be your guide resource for rice industry milling equipment and processing in Thailand.

What is the Thai rice factory processing industry?

Milling the rice is one of the most crucial processes in manufacturing rice in a Thai rice factory. In most cases, it comes at a later stage after the creation of rice. The natural forms of the paddy created by industrial processes are not fit for human consumption. The milling procedure, which occurs after paddy production, is necessary for this reason. It was taken out to be suitable for ingestion by humans. The process of milling rice may be carried out by several different kinds of rice mill machines. Rice is produced by milling uncooked paddy at a food processing setup and equipment known as a rice mill. The finished rice is obtained from paddies, where it is then milled and processed using cutting-edge equipment.

How does a rice factory work in Thailand?

Rice is produced in a rice mill of a Thailand rice factory, a facility that processes paddy into rice for commercial distribution. Rice mills fall under the category of food processing facilities. The complete product is obtained from paddy fields, then milled and processed in a sanitary manner using sophisticated technology in a dust-free atmosphere, and finally cleaned using machines that sort the product.

• A paddy pre-cleaning machine is used to clean the paddy before the manufacturing process begins, and the cleaned paddy is placed in raw paddy storage bins after being removed from the machine. The paddy that had been kept is transferred to soaking tanks made of food-grade stainless steel. After the water in the tank has been drained, the wet paddy is prepared for the boiling process.

• The coarse rice is rolled or ground between the stones by hand to accomplish the plowing process. Processing often happens in the rice mill, where automated machines are used. First, the rice is washed to remove any dirt that may be present. The top stuff is removed by the air that is blowing. After washing the rice, it is mixed by a machine that uses a process that duplicates the hand-placed stones. Rice is placed between two sheets of metal in a sheller machine, which hulls and decomposes the grain. It takes away between 80 and 905 of the rice’s kernels.

• The machine that does the shelling helps to carry the grain and rudder to a steel reel, which then aspirates the mites that have been discarded and send the kernel to a machine that separates the thin grains. When the kernel is shaken, the paddy machine separates the rice based on its weight, placing the less nutritious varieties on one side and the more nutritious varieties on the other. Brown rice is produced by subjecting white rice to further pressing in a shelling machine in separate batches. This results in the rice’s grain being thinner.

• Because the rice’s outer bran is kept intact, further processing is discontinued because it is no longer needed. Therefore, brown rice is being processed even further to produce white rice. The process of milling white rice removes the vitamins and minerals found in the bran, which is the outermost layer of the rice. Additional processing is done to prevent the rice’s nutritional value loss. Additional rice is processed into the rice that we eat.

Is rice from Thailand good?

Thailand has long been acknowledged as the “rice bowl of Asia.” Rice is not only Thailand’s most popular and extensively consumed food, but it is also an important component of Thai cultural customs. Rice farming has been important in Thai history and culture for thousands of years; in fact, some experts believe that rice cultivation predates the arrival of Buddhism in Thailand. Rice is highly valued in Thai culture due to the many health benefits it offers. There are around 3,500 rice varieties in Thailand from different rice factory Bangkok, ranging from indigenous wild rice varieties to recently produced kinds. Some of these species are quite new.

Thailand is now not just one of the world’s leading rice producers but also the world’s biggest rice exporter. Rice is so important in Thai society that the term meaning “eat” (kin Khao) translates literally as “eat rice.” In Thailand, a meal is incomplete unless it contains rice. Rice’s importance in Thai culture has been handed down from generation to generation and is as important now as how it was in the past.

Rice Factory Milling Equipment in Thailand

Here are some of the rice factory milling equipment:

• Paddy Cleaner

During the cleaning process for cereal, this multipurpose separator is used to efficiently separate big coarse materials from tiny fine materials such as grit. Its design allows it to serve a variety of applications. 

• Destoner

Although stones and other heavy contaminants have a different bulk density than grains, the destoner can separate them. A long lifespan is ensured by a solid, heavy-duty structure that is both rigid and heavy-duty, with thicker steel plates and a robust frame. This is the perfect piece of equipment for quickly and easily separating grains from stones in an effective and trouble-free way.

• Paddy Husker

It is an agricultural tool that can perform the task of automatically separating grains of rice from their chaff.

• Paddy Separator

This paddy separator is an oscillation-type paddy separator with a very good sorting performance and a design that makes it simple to maintain. Paddy, a combination of paddy and brown rice, and brown rice are the three unique classes created when a mixture of paddy and brown rice is processed using this method.

• Rotating Sieve

Rice that has been milled may be reliably and quickly separated into two to seven categories by using this machine. These grades include major impurities, head rice, mixed, large broken, medium broken, tiny broken, tips, bran, and so on.

• Rice Polisher

Rice has its surface cleaned, which has a substantial impact on the overall quality of the items that are produced. Due to the machine’s high level of performance as well as the advancements that have been introduced into it over the previous 30 years, it has garnered an outstanding reputation in a variety of nations.

• Thickness Grader

It was created to separate broken and immature kernels from mature rice and wheat grains in the most effective manner possible. The sizes of the screens’ slot openings can be chosen from a comprehensive selection.

• Length Grader

The length of the grain is used to differentiate between one or two types of broken or shorter grains and whole grains.

• Color Separator

This machine can inspect a grain of rice or wheat, and it will reject any foreign materials, off-color grains, or other defective products mixed in with them. The program detects flawed items using illumination and high-resolution cameras and then “rejects” them by propelling them away at high speeds via a series of tiny air nozzles.

Rice Factory Milling Processing in Thailand

Rice milling removes the husk and bran layers from the paddy to produce a white rice kernel that is free of contaminants. This procedure is known as “Rice Polishing.” Most milled rice comprises approximately 21 percent husk, 8 and 12 percent bran depending on milling, and 69 percent starchy endosperm. The process of milling rice in a rice factory consists of five significant steps or components.

1. Cleaning

Removing foreign particles from the paddies, such as stones, immature grains, and other impurities is the cleaning process’s primary objective. Specifically, this goal is accomplished by using water. The grains are washed and inspected before they are processed. Unfortunately, the dust can’t be removed from the raw particle by cleaning it. Instead, it contributes to the accomplishment of high milling recoveries.

2. Dehusking or dehulling

Dehusking or dehulling involves removing the trash, also known as the outer husks, from the rice grains. A low shelling degree is characteristic of conventional hulling machines (60-70 percent ). Rice is broken more easily by these machines, which are not as efficient as other methods for separating paddy rice from brown rice. Therefore, it is very important to install pneumatic rubber shellers, tray separators, and husk separators in your mill’s section responsible for dehusking. This will be of assistance to you:

1. Make a five percent improvement to the milling capacity.
2. Reduce the amount of rice that is broken.
3. Reduce as much money as possible that you spend on consumables and downtime.
4. Remove any admixtures, such as rice kernels that are too large or grains that have not fully matured.

3. Bleaching or polishing the surface

Rice may have its bran removed by a procedure known as whitening or polishing. This renders the rice appropriate for human consumption and meets the standards of the market. You will benefit from the following if you equip your Modern Rice Mill with vertical whiteners and silky polishers:

• Improve the color’s whiteness.
• Reduce the amount of broken head rice to boost overall output.
• Improve the overall visual appeal of the rice kernels.

4. Grading

Grading helps mill owners achieve a better head rice yield and retain broken rice for further processing. Grading also helps mill owners achieve a higher quality of rice. 

5. Separating the Colors

The technique of separating refined grains from unrefined grains depending on the rice’s color is called color sorting. The most up-to-date color sorting machines include components such as auto sorting control systems, picture capture systems that can save up to 200 profiles, and quality ejector systems that monitor the output quality.

Implementing the current rice milling method might be your greatest choice if you want to enhance the quality or the amount of the milled rice you produce. You may check https://www.thailee.com/ for further information if you still have questions about the rice milling processes in Thailand.