UP scientist: ‘Fabricated’ rice may be better than ordinary rice

(Photo from The Citizen Daily)

MANILA – According to University of the Philippines food scientist and professor Ma. Concepcion Lizada, the controversial ‘synthetic’ rice may actually be good for consumption and may even be better alternative to ordinary rice.

“I would rather call it fabricated rice. It’s giving fabricated rice a very bad reputation,” Lizada said during the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) open forum.

“We actually have a commercial product now that is available widely in the market. They call it corned rice. In fact, there was a media blitz about the corned rice. It’s good. I tasted it myself,” she added.

Lizada disclosed that there were even claims that fabricated or corned rice was better than ordinary rice for its low glucose content. She also explained how it was made through food extrusion technology.

“Remember exclusion technology involves gelatinization and therefore, if you gelatinize your amilose to a high extent, it becomes more available and therefore the glycaemic index must have been modified somehow,” Lizada said.

“But it’s available. It’s a good technology. The issue is just, why go through the backdoor rather than it being sold as grains rather than rice, grains made from different starch sources,” she added.

Meanwhile, new reports claimed that synthetic noodles were recently sold in Calinan Public Market, Davao City. Like the fake rice, the fake noodles were odorless and did not spoil.