Broken is quite popular among the Asian countries especially in the Easter regions like Japan, Vietnam and in northern parts of India including Maharashtra. Synchronous to its name, broken rice grains are stout with a fractured appearance. But that doesn’t make it any less, infact Broken rice is consumed widely all over the world for various unique local cuisines (like serving some of the very exotic dishes in Vietnam with pork & beef), animal fodder and beverage industries (Brewing beer). To understand more about broken rice, let’s first see how they get to the markets from the mills.

From the Mills

Now, as we saw before, Broken rice, simply put, is something that’s sorted out from the regular grains of rice. It is traditionally cheaper from the regular white rice in the markets of Asia and Eurpore. However, in contrast to that, In American markets, Broken rice is costlier than regular white rice. It’s something they value for the nature and uses of broken rice. Coming back to mills, Broken rice usually are considered ‘fragments’ that get sorted out during Drying or polishing, by their size and texture. During milling, Asian rice or paddy rice, usually 50% of whole rice, 16% of broken rice, 20% husk, 14% bran are produced. The sorted broken rice then gets packaged separately to hit the markets. 

The Dilemma

One might think, Broken rice is a lower grade rice that’s sold cheaper because it had lost it’s essential nutrition content during the milling process and that’s completely wrong. Broken rice is just wholly white rice in a different size and texture. Other than that, these grains do have a lot of benefits enclosed, which makes them a bang for buck.

Broken rice – Varieties

Although it’s a bit different in physical qualities, it’s almost similar in taste to regular grains of white rice. However, the texture wholly depends on the nature of it’s parent white rice & differs from various sorted broken rice. Usually, the grains are sorted on the basis of grain size, texture, taste and will be packaged as sorted rice available for different uses. Regardless of the nature of how it’s used/ consumed Broken rice undergoes a serious stage of sorting before hitting the markets. Sorted broken rice for the food industry and general consumption is available from many leading producers and traders in the Indian markets. Apart from general white broken rice, there are a couple of other varieties of the grain.

Brown Broken rice

This variety of rice is mostly used in the food industry/ other food products as a healthy addition – containing higher fibre and protein value. Fibre is mostly consumed for better digestion and brown broken rice is mostly used for rice based drinks (fibre drinks), healthy cereals and other snacks which are intended for healthy diets. 

Puffed Broke rice

With a crunchy texture (obtained from a vaporisation process), Puffed broken rice is used as a component in cereals, energy bars, savoury snacks and even in cakes. It is also used as a component of pet food, to serve the daily energy value.

Broken rice is considered a cheaper variety of rice, however, the benefits and uses of broken grains is indispensable.

In the Food Industry

Broken rice grains are usually stout and fragmented which gives them a unique taste when cooked. The real reason would be, because of their fragmented nature, the grains allow more flavour of the food and overall aroma, giving a rich satisfaction. And this attribute accounts for why broken is consumed in Majority of South East Asian countries. In Japan and Vietnam, traditional people value the flavour and overall traditional experience of their cuisines (of course, they are proud of it too!), leading to them leaning towards choosing broken grains rather than conventional white rice varieties. Japanese eat Broken rice along with Miso soup, Seaweed and many of their uniquely traditional dishes. 

In the northern states of India like Maharashtra, Broken rice resonates better with the traditional dishes like upma, Upma, Ghens, Kurma, Khichadi, among others. Also, due to its instant energy giving nature (it’s high in carbohydrate content), it works well for porridges giving the nice gluey texture.

Other than being considered for  something that’s tasty for traditional recipes Broken rice is also used for many other things in the Food & beverage industry. 

Baby food and cereals

The high caloric nature and the floury texture of the Broken rice is sorted out for producing Baby food and cereals. The raw material ‘arak’ , a flour obtained from these grains undergo various processes to become packaged baby foods, cereals and much more. It is also used in preparing rice flour based snacks, which is crispy in nature.

Feeding Livestock & Food for pets

In Bulk feeding for cattles, Broken rice is a cheaper source of energy with low fibre value. Heated, these grains become an exceptional source of filling food for livestock and even in the poultry these grains are fed for chickens. The heated grains are easy to consume and digest for dogs, improving the gut health.

Beverage industry

Processed along with Barley, Broken rice grains are utilised in Brewing beer & malting processes. It is also used for the production of Wine and traditional Japanese Sake.

Apart from the Industrial uses and general consumption, Broken rice grains are often underlooked as just an energy giving component in not so well off countries. It is quite untrue, because broken rice also carries tremendous health benefits too.

Health benefits of Broken rice

Helps in Losing weight

Apart from being used for pet foods as they are gut health enhancers, Broken rice is also consumed for losing weight as a healthy addition to diet. Brown broken rice is usually a bit cheaper than unbroken brown grains. This, however, enables a lot of people to follow their diet at a sufficiently cheaper rate, since broken rice carries all the fibre, nutritional values of regular brown rice.

Treating constipation & Ulcers

Having regular broken rice porridges/ meals will help you regulate gut health and clear constrictions in the digestive walls. In addition to that, corrosive digestive paths caused by ulcers can be cleared by the soothing nature of broken rice meals. It also improves your bowel functions and cures upset stomach reactions, as it is a good comfort meal.

Final shot

The good quality of Broken rice remains indisputable for various consumption across industries and it’s fairly obvious that Broke rice is something worth considering for and not just an cheaper alternative to rice. Nonetheless, Broken rice is often criticised for coming along with a lot of impurities such as dust, insects etc. Always make sure to buy your broken rice from a trusted producer to avoid such inconsistencies!