Nutritional Dynamics of Fermented White Rice: Effects of Various Cooking Processes on the Anti-nutrients and Antioxidant Content
Rice is an extensively consumed staple food that provides indispensable nutrients and bioactive compounds, including antioxidants that combat oxidative stress. However, it also contains anti-nutritional factors that can inhibit nutrient absorption. The research investigates how different cooking methods such as earthen pot cooking combined with steel vessel cooking and pressure cooking followed by fermentation effect on nutritional values and bioactive compounds of cooked and fermented rice grains. The experimental samples consisted of rice cooked in three different methods such as mud pot cooked rice, steel vessel cooked rice, and pressure-cooked rice where all samples were subjected to 24-hour fermentation. The researchers performed proximate antioxidant as well as anti-nutritional evaluations of cooked and fermented rice samples. The study revealed that cooking rice in pots led to the best antioxidant preservation because the food received gentler heat treatment throughout this method. The antioxidant content remained partially intact in rice cooked with steel vessel under low heating while pressure cooking eliminated antioxidants but was successful in decreasing anti-nutrient properties. The fermentation process beneficially impacted prepared kanji from rice by reducing anti-nutritional factors as well as creating moderate antioxidant conditions. The research findings demonstrate that food processing through cooking and fermentation techniques lead to substantial changes in rice nutritional values. Pressure cooking reduces the anti-nutritional factors which prevent nutrient absorption while pot cooking maintains antioxidants' integrity and fermented rice kanji supports balanced nutrient absorption as well as antioxidant retention. The nutritional quality of cooked rice improves through various cooking processes along with additional fermentation steps which establishes rice as a healthy functional food despite common health perceptions about its consumption. This investigation assesses how different cooking techniques (pot, steel vessel and pressure cooking) affect rice bioactive content and nutrition together. This research diverges from previous studies by analysing how the combination of different processes improves antioxidants while decreasing anti-nutritional factors. The research demonstrates that pot cooking helps retain antioxidants while pressure cooking reduces anti-nutritional compounds and fermentation regulates nutrient uptake. A comprehensive strategy provides usable methods to enhance staple food nutrition status while disproving the common perception that consuming rice leads to health problems. This research creates foundational groundwork for future investigations focused on improving methods for developing daily nutritional food.