Rice-wheat flour blend advocated

Chamikara Weerasinghe

COLOMBO:The Institute of Post Harvest Technology has urged the Government to promote the use of rice flour as a counter to the soaring prices of imported wheat flour.

The institute’s Chairman Abhaya Weragoda said it was possible to promote bread containing 20 per cent rice flour and 80 per cent wheat flour for a start.

Commenting on the recent increase in bread and wheat flour prices, Weragoda said the situation should be regarded as a welcome opportunity to promote rice flour into the system.

“I read in a recent news item which quoted Trade and Commerce Minister Bandula Gunawardena as stating that he would somehow take steps to import wheat flour to the country at lower costs to meet the public demand,” he said.

“This should not be the case because we could save billions of rupees if we rise from being dependent so heavily on wheat flour,” Weragoda said.

“The wheat importer, Prima Company was using this dependency. We have to think nationally to come out of this problem so that the country will benefit economically in a big way by its results,” he said.

“Besides it has been proven that excessive wheat consumption can be harmful and could cause diabetes, allergies and gastritis. Sri Lankans have become prone to these illnesses because of excessive wheat consumption,” he said.

“Moreover, we do not get much fibre from imported wheat as the fibre in them are marketed to Singapore,” he explained.

Weragoda said he had discussions with Health Ministry officials and Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva about health issues associated with wheat and promoting rice flour as a healthy alternative.

“We have over two million metric tonnes of paddy in our stock as a bumper harvest.

These stocks could be used to meet our carbohydrate needs , which could be done gradually by introducing mixtures of rice flour and wheat flour as a ‘bakery flour’ to make bread,” he said.

Rice may be put in water so as to produce rice cream which may be mixed with dry wheat flour to produce a wet flour, to promote the use of rice flour into the system, “Weragoda said.

“We can gradually decrease the amount of wheat flour used in the process so as to make the product palatable to consumers,” he added.