Rice cooks on its own - actually what you're eating isn't real rice!

Self-cooking rice, also known as self-boiling boxed rice, is a convenient food that can be cooked without using a gas or electric stove.

How does self-cooking rice work?

No fire or electricity required. The secret lies in the "self-boiling" package placed at the bottom of the plastic box . When you pour water in, the ingredients in the package will participate in a chemical reaction, creating a large amount of heat to heat the water and cook the food.

Although the specific formulas of self-boiling packs from different manufacturers are different, the core is to use exothermic reactions to release a large amount of heat in a short time to achieve heating. warm.

Surely everyone knows the chemical reaction when a heating bag meets water during chemistry class in middle school: adding quicklime to water will create hydrated lime, and at the same time give off a lot of heat. The process of oxidation or burning of iron powder or aluminum powder will also release a large amount of heat.

The convenience of self-boiling rice comes from the self-boiling package . This packet contains a mixture of substances such as magnesium, iron and salt. When exposed to water, these substances will react chemically, creating large amounts of heat, enough to heat the water and cook the food in the box. With just a few simple steps, you can have a delicious meal without needing to cook elaborately.

Judging from the disclosed ingredients of different brands of self-boiling products, self-boiling bags mainly contain calcium oxide (quicklime), diatomite, activated carbon, iron powder, aluminum powder, sodium sulfate, etc. Among them, calcium oxide is the main heating ingredient , which is beneficial to the dispersion of calcium oxide and other heating ingredients, and the reaction in contact with water is not only beneficial to the dispersion of heating active ingredients but It can also eliminate odors during the heating process. Iron powder and aluminum powder can further enhance the heating effect of calcium oxide.

The main chemical reaction that occurs during heating is the reaction between calcium oxide (quicklime) and water to produce calcium hydroxide (slaked lime). This reaction is strongly exothermic, releasing a large amount of heat causing water to boil. to generate large amounts of steam.

During this process, iron powder and aluminum powder also undergo oxidation reactions under alkaline conditions, both of which can release large amounts of heat.

The rice in self-boiling rice does not contain real rice.

Rice cooks on its own - actually what you're eating isn't real rice!

Self-cooking rice uses the principle that quicklime generates heat when exposed to water to heat food. So why does it usually take at least 30 minutes to cook rice with a rice cooker but only a few minutes with self-cooked rice?

In fact, the 'rice' in self-cooked rice is not real rice . The production process for self-cooking rice is roughly as follows: raw materials (broken rice or rice) are ground, ingredients and food additives are added, then steamed and cooked through extrusion at high temperatures, then cool and shape. This type of rice is also known as: recombinant rice .

The starch structure of this recombinant rice has changed, causing the cooking time to be greatly shortened compared to original rice.

Glutinous rice flour can reduce the hardness of rice grains and increase the viscosity of recombinant rice.

Why add ingredients and food additives to the formula?

Ingredients added to recombinant rice include glutinous rice flour, wheat flour.; Additives include humectants, emulsifiers, etc.

Glutinous rice flour can reduce the hardness of rice grains and increase the viscosity of recombinant rice; Gluten protein in flour can form complexes with starch to increase the elasticity and toughness of rice grains; Humectants have the effect of increasing the toughness and aroma of rice and reducing the viscosity of rice grains; Emulsifiers may be added to preserve the final product appearance.

Adding more of these changes the composition of the original rice and allows you to have a hot meal faster . However, after this series of processing processes, the nutrition of self-cooked rice has also changed.

Self-cooking rice produced by recombinant extrusion technology partially decomposes starch and contains more disaccharides and oligosaccharides than conventional rice (the process of digesting starch in the human digestive system is amylase hydrolyzing starch flour into oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides), from this perspective, the process of producing self-cooked rice will partially replace the work of digestive enzymes.

As a result, this type of rice is easier to digest : to increase the feel and taste, some production processes will add glutinous rice flour, the purpose of which is to increase the amount of amylopectin in the self-cooked rice so that the rice will come into contact with Digestive enzymes make it easier to digest.

This is good for people with insufficient digestive secretions, but is disadvantageous for people with abnormal blood sugar levels because the post-meal blood sugar level of this type of rice will be higher than regular rice.

This type of rice is easier to digest, which is good for people with insufficient digestive secretions.

About nutritional loss

High-temperature extrusion reduces plant protein digestibility and amino acid utilization. Self-cooking rice obtained by recombinant technology will lose part of vitamin B - the loss rate of vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 can be up to 53.8% and 19.4%.

To be precise, self-cooked rice does not have many disadvantages and is easier to digest than regular rice. However, it is not suitable for people who want to control blood sugar levels , and some B vitamins are lost during processing.

This type of rice is not suitable for people who want to control blood sugar levels.

The history of self-heating food dates back to the 1940s , when American military scientists began researching methods to provide soldiers with convenient and easy-to-preserve food under war conditions. Their goal was to create a food that could be heated without the use of a stove or cooking equipment.

The first type of self-heating food introduced to the market was self-heating soup. Self-heating soup is packaged in a plastic or paper box, containing a bag of soup powder and a self-boiling packet. When the user puts hot water into the box, the self-boiling package will chemically react and create heat, heating the soup.

Since its inception, self-heating food has continuously developed and diversified. Today, there are many different types of self-heating foods on the market, including: Self-boiling rice; Self-boiling hot pot; Self-boiling noodles; Self-boiling pho; Self-boiling vermicelli.

Self-heating food is popular because of its convenience and speed. With just a few minutes of waiting, users can enjoy a hot meal without having to cook.