Rice bran-infused nutritional ‘OryFo-cot’ flour

The process of milling and polishing refined flour fills the stomach but does not provide enough nutrition. Such concerns prompted Bangladeshi researcher Rafiqul Islam alias Gazi Rafiq to invent a wheat and rice bran-infused special type of flour, ‘OryFo-cot’. Not only has he invented such a flour, but he has also been consuming it for the last seven years. 

Gazi Rafiq first became popular due to his research regarding the water left after cooking rice. He said, in other countries, artificial ingredients are added to flour to increase its nutritional value. However, as there is no such initiative in Bangladesh, consumers are being deprived of a lot of nutrition when they eat bread. 

The researcher was inspired to invent a fortified flour which would supply the consumer with more nutrition. His research started in 2012, and he found that adding rice bran to wheat makes it more nutritious. 

He claimed that 900 grams of wheat combined with 100 grams of rice bran would result in 1kg of OryFo-cot wheat high in fibre and anti-oxidant properties. In other words, the flour will have 1 per cent rice bran. 

However, the process was quite difficult in practice. After separating from rice, the bran remains fresh for six hours at best. To bypass this problem, adding rice with bran to the wheat before turning it into flour is a more effective method. 

Gazi Rafiq said milled rice retains a good percentage of bran. My main target is to bring this bran to people’s plates. Why wouldn’t we consume something so beneficial? Diabetes, hypertension, and heart diseases have become rampant, nearly pandemic. This is deeply related to a lack of nutrition. 

Rice bran is very important to scientists due to its high nutrition content. Adding it to wheat yields composite OryFo-cot flour, which contains a higher percentage of antioxidants, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

As the process of making OryFo-cot flour is easy and its ingredients are abundant, its production cost would not be more than regular flour, Gazi Rafiq claims. 

At the recent Pushtibhat Convention, Dhaka University’s former Vice Chancellor and Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology Professor A K Azad Chowdhury said, that people of all ages in the United States take food supplements. However, people who eat rice don’t need that. Rice has all the vitamins. We shouldn’t discard rice bran, we have to use it properly. 

The nutritional value of wheat is less than rice, he added. 

Talking to the Daily Samakal, Dhaka University’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Science former director nutritionist Dr Khurshid Jahan said, that rice bran’s nutritional value and herbal value can prevent many diseases. Regular consumption of 5-20 grams of rice bran can improve the body’s immune system. 

Rice bran also has anti-inflammatory effects which can reduce bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. It can also work to prevent cancer and heart diseases, the nutritionist says. 

Dr Sheikh Nazrul Islam, a former director of the same institute, said that even a small amount of rice bran present in the meal can help to prevent many complicated health issues. It can be the solution to malnutrition for everyone. 

Gazi Rafiq has also achieved government registration regarding his invention. His article on the matter was featured in the quarterly journal ‘Purogami Biggan’, published by the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR). 

In the article, Gazi Rafiq has shown the technique to produce OryFo-cot flour and its various nutritional benefits. 

This composite flour was studied at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of BCSIR. It was found that each 100 grams of OryFo-cot flour contains 9.05 grams of moisture, 13 grams of protein, 9.25 grams of gluten, and 5.29 milligrams of iron. 

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Food, every 100 grams of regular flour contains 12.2 grams of moisture, 10.6 grams of protein, and 3.8 milligrams of iron. 

Editor of Purogami Biggan Isahak Mollah said the mixture of rice bran in OryFo-cot flour will play a major role in protecting health.