Características culinárias de marcas comerciais de arroz

Abstract

Culinary characteristics are the principal determinants for the concept of quality for rice. In the case of polished white rice, consumer preference is for the product that provides good yield, cooks fast, presents dry and loose grains after cooking, and stays soft even after cooling. Of these features, “soltabilidade” is the most outstanding characteristic. In this work, culinary features of ten commercial brands of polished white rice traded in markets of Rio Grande do Sul during 2014 were evaluated periodically (every two months). Parameters were evaluated for the cooking properties (water absorption of the grains, pH, residues, and turbidity of wastewater) and for the cooking test (yield in weight and volume, cooking time, and “soltabilidade” of cooked grains), that tested differences between the commercial brands through the months. Furthermore, the correlations between the results were obtained through Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). Significant variations were observed (P<0.05) in the culinary characteristics between the commercial rice brands, as well as the same brands in different months. The parameters evaluated through the cooking properties and “soltabilidade” presented greater variations, wherein greater scores of “soltabilidade” were observed in the samples 1 and 3, while the lower scores were found in sample 9. Significant correlation (P<0.05) between the parameters showed that the greater the water absorption, the lower the values of residues (r = -0.34) and turbidity (r = -0.44) in the cooking water. The greater absorption of water also resulted in greater gravimetric yields (r = 0.51) and volumetric yields (r = 0.29 e), and these correlated among themselves (r = 0.47) and with the cooking time (r = 0.56 and r = 0.43). The “soltabilidade” was correlated with lower turbidity (r = -0.38), lower gravimetric yield (r = -0.29) and higher price (r = 0.49) with this being the only significant correlation in the price of products. The data obtained in this study is unpublished. Although, it does not allow the visualization of all aspects that justify the differences in the prices charged by the companies, the data demonstrated the correlation of the commercial value with the culinary characteristic more considered by rice consumers, the “soltabilidade".