Comparison Of Modified Rice Mill And Japanese Made Polishing Machine For Saponin Removal Of Quinoa

With the introduction of quinoa in Bhutan as a priority crop in 2015, its production is seen increasing every year and so is its demand owing to its nutritional value. Quinoa is a great source of protein and has digestive health benefits including many other health benefits. However quinoa contains some anti-nutritional compound known as saponin which has a bitter and soapy taste and it can also be highly toxic if ingested in large quantities. Therefore the saponin content in quinoa needs to be removed before consumption. Currently there are only few numbers of quinoa polishing machines in Bhutan imported from Japan which is very expensive. Most of the Bhutanese farmers own a rice mill which actually is not designed for polishing quinoa, however a sieve which is the same size as that of quinoa polishing machine was designed and fabricated and used in rice mill for polishing quinoa and results were compared. A comparative evaluation of the machine was conducted and the result indicated high correlation with that of Japanese quinoa machine in polishing efficiency with higher machine capacity.