In the quest for healthier, more diverse, and sustainable diets, restructured rice is emerging as a key direction for food industry innovation due to its nutritional fortification, functional customization, and wide range of raw materials. However, the perfect blend of various base flours, nutrients, and flavorants to replicate or even exceed the taste and texture of natural rice is a complex challenge. Small twin-screw extruders are playing an indispensable role in this fine-tuning process, serving as powerful tools for solving problems in the lab.

 

Research starting point: Exploration of precise ratio matching for multi-source raw materials

The raw material composition of reconstituted rice is complex and may include broken rice, rice flour, mixed grain flour, starch, protein powder, dietary fiber, as well as various vitamins and minerals. Even minor changes in the initial formula can likely affect the quality of the final product.

Waste of raw materials and difficulty in parameter adjustment are common problems in the research and development stage of traditional large equipment.

Unlike our small twin screw extruders, which require only a small amount of material to complete a full test, allowing researchers to screen and optimize dozens, if not hundreds, of raw material formulas at a low cost and fast speed, and courageously try all kinds of innovative formulas without worrying about the waste of a large amount of materials.

 

Process core: precise control of the dual-screw extrusion process

The quality core of restructured rice lies in the extrusion process. The small twin-screw extruder, despite its compact size, is fully equipped and can precisely replicate the key process parameters of large-scale production, providing excellent operability for fine-tuned research and development:

Accurate temperature control system:

The gelatinization degree of starch directly affects the viscoelasticity and digestibility of restructured rice. The small machine can simulate the entire temperature curve from low-temperature feeding to high-temperature gelatinization and then cooling shaping by independent PID control of multiple cylinder bodies, ensuring that the starch achieves the best gelatinization.

Flexible screw configuration: 

The researchers can configure and adjust the screw elements according to the properties of the raw materials. This allows them to control the shearing, mixing, conveying, and kneading of the material, and thus regulate the compaction degree, Q-elasticity, and microstructure of the rice grains.

The system is capable of infinite speed variation: 

The balance between spindle speed and feed rate is critical. On the small machine, researchers are able to precisely adjust the screw speed and feed rate to find the optimum "dwell time" and "shear energy" to optimise product textural properties.

Modular forming molds:

By replacing different molds, products of different shapes and specifications can be easily produced to quickly meet the diverse market demands.

 

Data-Driven Efficient Debugging and Optimization for Taste-Decision Making

The ultimate goal of R&D is to accurately meet the taste bud demands and mouthfeel expectations of consumers. The core value of the small twin-screw extruder lies in its ability to standardize and parameterize technological processes, thus ensuring the quality of reconstituted rice

The "artistic" elements that originally depended on experience and skill have been transformed into measurable and reproducible "scientific" processes.

Rapid iteration and efficient debugging:

Formula and parameter adjustments based on morning taste tests lead to new sample production in the afternoon. This "quick trial and error - feedback - optimization" closed-loop R&D model shortens the new product development cycle from months to weeks.

Data-Driven, Precise Replication:

All parameters of every experiment are fully recorded and correlated with the final physical-chemical properties and sensory evaluation. Once the optimal taste point is identified, all process parameters can be precisely replicated, providing solid and reliable data support for pilot plant scale-up and production.

Protection of active functional factors: 

The mild processing conditions and precise temperature control of the small scale equipment can explore the optimum process conditions to protect the activity of functional factors such as probiotics and vitamins in the restructured rice .

        In this field of innovation, the race is on for speed and accuracy in R&D. The small twin-screw extruder is favored by food R&D engineers for its low consumption, high efficiency, high flexibility and dataization, which greatly reduces the threshold of innovation. We will continue to focus on the innovation and application of food processing technology, provide more advanced and efficient R&D solutions for the industry, and help enterprises develop more high-quality, nutritious and delicious reconstituted rice products to meet the growing health food demands of consumers.