New rice flour for making bread

A Taiwanese agricultural station has introduced a new type of rice flour that can be used to make bread with a higher rice component, in the hope of boosting domestic rice consumption.

The flour, along with rice bread, other rice-based food products and baking technology, were showcased at a product promotion fair held by the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station under the Council of Agriculture.

The TN-D80 rice flour, made from domestic rice variety “Tainan 11, ” can be used to bake bread that contains up to 80 percent rice flour and that has the same texture and softness as bread made from wheat flour, said Dennis Wang, director-general of the agricultural station.

Wang said that rice bread currently sold on the market still use wheat flour as its predominant ingredient and contains only 30 percent to 50 percent of rice flour.

However, the bread made from the station’s newly developed rice flour contains no wheat flour but only small amounts of gluten, said Wang.

He said that the station’s technology is on a par with that of Japan, where rice bread is becoming increasingly popular.