3.4. Milled rice quality analysis
As shown in Fig. 3a, with the increase of storage time, the
moisture content changed mostly between 12.6 and 12.3% w.b. both
for control and RF treated rice samples. The moisture content was
slightly reduced after RF heating. However, there were no significant differences between control and RF treated samples (P > 0.05)
before and after RF treatments during accelerated shelf life storage
(Fig. 3a). A similar result was observed by Theanjumpol et al. (2007)
who reported that after RF heating at 45, 60, 75 and 90 C for the
duration of three minutes, there was no significant difference in
milled rice moisture content (P > 0.05). Similarly, water activity
changed in a narrow range both for control and RF treated milled
rice samples (Fig. 3b). This phenomenon is also observed by Haque
et al. (2004), indicating that the higher the moisture content of the
kernel, the higher is the water activity value at a constant ambient
temperature.