Low-Cost Rice Substitute

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 5

Low-Cost Rice Substitute

ANN ARBOR (Michigan). Foreign students at the University of Michigan have tasted and put their stamp of approval on a new rice substitute designed to supplement the diets of people in underfed countries. The substitute, known as batina seed, was developed by Professor Lloyd E. Brownell of the University’s department of chemical engineering. Professor Brownell says batina seed, which closely resembles rice, is made of I cereal flours, toasted legume fours, wheat germ, dehydrated i yeast and vitamin and mini eral supplements. Students at Michigan’s International Centre have prepared dishes from their native lands, using batina seed as a rise substitute. They found that it can be cooked like rice and they agreed that the flavour was acceptable. Professor Brownell believes the new food “should be a great boon to solving malnutrition in the tropics.” The seed was developed from experiments designed to produce a rice substitute that could be produced from local foods at low cost Batina seed is made in a high-speed press, similar to a macaroni machine. It cooks in about 10 minutes and costs about the same as rice.