Dielectric spectroscopy technique for carbohydrate characterization of fragrant rice, brown rice and white rice

This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of microwave dielectric spectroscopic technique in characterizing commercial rice due to different level of moisture content. There are some unethical rice industry runner mixes good qualities of rice which can be sold at high price with low cost and quality of rice to maximize profit. It causes fraudulency in business and great lost in term of money to nation who take rice as staple food. It happens frequently in Asian country which is active in agricultural activities. This technique is implemented using Keysight E8362B network analyzer in conjunction with an Keysight 85070E dielectric probe ranging from 200 MHz to 10 GHz. The samples of study are commercially available at market, namely fragrant rice, white rice, and brown rice, respectively. These are the popular and favorite rice for Malaysian due its delicacy and affordable price. Nutrient level for fragrant rice, white rice, and brown rice in terms of protein, moisture, carbohydrate and fat are different and unique. It leads to various electromagnetic responses toward frequency. Dielectric and reflection measurement were conducted to characterize these rice. The presence of polar and non-polar molecules in nutrient of rice causes variation of dielectric and reflection behavior over the operating frequency range.