Reference on Rice Quality and Safety

Abstract

Over the last decade, there have been massive investments and research to improve rice yield per hectare. Alongside successful stories of improved rice yields are corresponding concerns stemming from pre- and post-harvest rice quality- and safety-related issues. Such concerns in rice production, handling, and storage systems present public health and economic problems. To consumers and producers, a serious concern is the potential growth of toxigenic fungi on rice during storage leading to contamination of the rice with mycotoxins. That withstanding, diminished functional, sensory, and nutritional attributes hugely impact the investment returns. The author understands that discourse on rice storage is incomplete without reflections on nutritional related losses. In rendering a strong chapter to meet a wider readership, the above issues are discussed with deliberate effort to highlight technological advances making headway in the rice industry; these are outlined in the introduction, at first, and then expounded on in subsequent sections.