Rice is ‘punished’ before it reaches market

By Harlan Kirgan
Editor
Rice is literally punished before it lands on your fork or spoon.
Dwayne Fulton, managing partner or the Falcon Rice Mill in Crowley, said the milling process for rice is abrasive.
“It punishes the rice pretty well,” Fulton said to Eunice Kiwanis Club members recently.
Fulton explained the rice milling business from the vantage of the relatively small Falcon Rice Mill founded in the 1940s.
“We can mill from 140 to 150 hundred weight of rice an hour,” he said. In comparison, Louisiana Rice, also in Crowley, mills 1,400 to 1,500 hundred weight and hour, he said. And, there are mills that handle up to 200 tons of rice an hour, he added.
The milling process is aimed producing as much whole kernel rice as possible, he said. The industry standard is have about 4 percent broken kernels in a package, but that can range from 2.5 percent to 7 percent, he said.
The number of whole kernels in a bag rice begins on the farm, he said. Better handling on the farm means more whole kernels, he said.
Sticks, seeds and other foreign material are separated from the grain in the first step of the mill process. The rice then goes to a sheller, which pops the kernel out of the hull. The chaff is vacuumed and the grains begin a polishing process to remove the bran.
Removing the bran takes the rice from brown to white. Any rice will produce brown rice, he said.
“It is punishing, it is very abrasive,” Fulton said. “As the kernels themselves break we have what we call second hands or half grains, then we have brewers, which are quarter grains.”
The second hands and brewers are byproducts with their own markets, he said.
The brewers can end up in pet food, baby food and even the crunchy coating on ice cream bars, he said.
Falcon Rice Mill sells second hands to a prison system, he said. “We give them a huge price break to have the brokens mixed in but it also gives us an outlet to get rid of some of our broken, so it is a win-win for both of us,” he said.
Food safety is an issue for the mill, which can track its rice back to the farm, he said.
The mill employs 46 people producing mostly for the wholesale market, he said. The company’s main label is Cajun Country, but also produces Home Country for its Texas market. Falcon Mill rice is distributed in a five state area, he said, and can be found a major retailers such as Walmart.
Fulton said 98 percent of the rough rice delivered to the mill is from a 50-mile radius of the plant.