Effect of cooking and soaking on physical characteristics, nutrient composition and sensory evaluation of indigenous and foreign rice varieties in Nigeria

The objective of this study is to ascertain the effect of cooking and soaking on the physical characteristics, nutrient composition and sensory evaluation of indigenous ‘ofada’ rice and foreign‘aroso’ rice varieties in Nigeria. The two rice varieties were freshly purchased in the raw state, soaked in water and cooked. The physical characteristics, such as, length, width, weight, colour, purity,breakage, cooking time, dispersability and swelling capacity of the raw rice varieties were determined. The raw, soaked and cooked rice varieties were oven dried as 60°C for 4 h and milled to attain uniformsurface area. The proximate composition and some minerals of the raw, soaked and cooked rice varieties and the sensory evaluation of the cooked rice were determined. Ofada and aroso rice varietieswere brown and creamy in colour, respectively. There were significant (p0.01) differencesin the levels of minerals; Ca, Fe, Mg and P, in raw, cooked and soaked ofada and aroso rice. Sensory evaluation showed that cooked aroso rice was generally preferred, in terms of colour, aroma, taste, texture and overall acceptability