The evaluation of a dryer performance in terms of energy consumption, drying capacity and
quality of final product is the main concern of rice milling industry at any time. A study was
implemented to investigate on the benefits of common drying practices by studying the drying
performances of flat-bed and inclined-bed dryers which are popular in rice industry in Malaysia
and neighbouring countries. For this purpose, flat-bed dryer (FBD) and inclined-bed dryer
(IBD) were designed, fabricated and operated in the laboratory based on actual industrial
drying conditions. The results revealed that inclined-bed drying significantly increased drying
capacity (ton m-2 h-1) of up to 25 % at drying temperature of 42-43°C and almost 29 % at 38-
39°C drying air temperature compared to flat-bed drying. Furthermore, overall drying energy
consumption in IBD was found to vary between 78.6 to 91.97 kW.h ton-1, while for FBD the
energy consumption was more than 200 kW.h ton-1 for both levels of drying air temperatures.
Both dryers were found to produce rice with desired/ acceptable commercial quality index,
even though the head rice yields of FBD were higher than that of IBDs.
Chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) were synthesized via ionic gelation and used for the preparation of starch-based nanocomposite films containing different concentration of CNP (0, 5, 10, 15, 20% w/w). Antimicrobial properties of starch/CNP films was evaluated via in vitro (disc diffusion analysis) and in vivo (microbial count in wrapped cherry tomatoes) study. It was found that inhibitory zone of the 15 and 20% of starch/CNP films were clearly observed for all the tested bacteria including Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. In vivo study revealed that the starch/CNP film (15% w/w) was more efficient to inhibit the microbial growth in cherry tomatoes (7 × 102 CFU/g) compared to neat starch film (2.15 × 103 CFU/g) thus confirmed the potential application of the films as antimicrobial food packaging.