The Council of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Agency and FamilyMart have teamed up to invent three flavors of rice bread and cake, which the agency said yesterday are to find a new use for the nation’s rice surplus and boost the public’s health.
The three products include pork floss rice cake, oat and rice toast with adzuki beans, and caramel rice cake, which are set to hit the market tomorrow and be priced between NT$22 and NT$28.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) said that Taiwan’s rice surplus amounts to between 30 and 40 tonnes annually, in part because of a WTO regulation on the volume of rice the nation is able to export.
The council said it hopes that by marketing these pastries, which are each made with 15 percent rice, Taiwan will be able to reduce its rice surplus by between 10 and 20 tonnes annually, Chen said.
The products were developed between May and August, which was relatively fast compared with other food products the convenience store chain has introduced in the past, thanks to the agency’s advanced rice powder grinding techniques, which enable the powder to be ground into various sizes, FamilyMart’s public relations manager Ho Hsu Mi (何敘米) said.
Taiwan-based China Grain Products Research and Development Institute vice president Shih Kuen-ho (施坤河) said that rice might be a healthy alternative to wheat, which might be linked to obesity.
“Obesity is a much more prevalent problem among the younger generation, who grew up eating mostly wheat, than it is among people aged 50 or above, who grew up eating rice. The Japanese are known for being healthy because they eat so much rice, even for breakfast, which could indicate that rice is a more suitable food for Asians” than wheat, he said.
Institute head of research and development team Su Mei-ying (蘇梅英) said that the protein conversion ratio of rice is about 98 percent, while that of wheat is about 92 percent. She also said that, contrary to popular belief, rice actually contains less calories than wheat because studies have shown that it produces more resistant starch, which is non-digestible by the human body, and therefore helps to stabilize glucose levels.
When asked what the difference was between the new products and 7-Eleven’s now-discontinued rice bread, she touted the advantages of the industry-government collaboration by saying that the four rice powder mills selected by the agency consistently provide high volumes of good-quality material and Lien Hwa is one of them, adding that baking techniques have also improved over the years.
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