Effect of pretreatment on milling characteristics of little millets

Abstract

Little millet, rich in nutritional and health promoting factors has not been commercially popular because of its difficult post-harvest operations. Experiments were conducted to study the effect of different pretreatment on dehulling characteristics of these small grains using an abrasive roller. The different unit operations used as pretreatment were soaking, parboiling followed by drying. Both sun drying and hot air convective drying at 45 0C were used prior to milling. Different milling performance indices were measured for all the samples subjected to different treatment methods and compared. The results indicated that the samples soaked for 4 h followed by hot air drying at 45°C had maximum dehulling and milling efficiency as 96.72% and 70.21% respectively. The head yield of the product was 53.32% with usable brokens as 16.88 % coarse and 3.25% fine fractions.