Infrared Heat Eliminates Pests from Stored Rice

University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture scientists are studying methods of eliminating insect pests from stored rice without using pesticides.

Dr. Terry Siebenmorgen, professor of food science, and Derek Schluterman, a recent graduate in biological engineering, worked with Dr. Frank Arthur of the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kan., to investigate a means of killing insects in rice by heating it with infrared energy.

“The rice industry has requested that we look at ways of controlling insects without using chemical pesticides,” Siebenmorgen said. “It’s also likely that consumers will increasingly demand foods on which no pesticides are used.”

Arthur, an entomologist, said insects such as rice weevils, lesser grain borers and Angumois grain moths are of particular concern to rice producers and processors because they feed from the inside of rice kernels. Rice weevils were used in the tests.

Infrared energy heats the rice to a temperature the insects cannot survive, Siebenmorgen said. Using an infrared rice drying unit provided by Catalytic Drying Technologies of Manhattan, Kan., and funding from the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board, Siebenmorgen, Schluterman  and Arthur set out to determine the minimum temperature necessary to kill the insects and the necessary infrared intensity and exposure duration to achieve those temperatures within the rice kernels.

To read more, please go to http://www.arkansasagnews.com/Publications/Agnews/agnews06-02.html