5. Conclusion

5. Conclusions

Basmati rice ferments the fastest and glutinous rice takes the longest to ferment. This is shown by the readings for Basmati and Glutinous rice with basmati having 87% per 100ml and glutinous rice having 1% per 100ml.

5.1 Summary of findings

Many people in the world are malnutrition and they often pass away due to this. They cannot afford to eat food and go hungry for many days.We want to solve world malnutrition since fermented products would easily give people the correct nutrients. Fermentation helps break down nutrients in food, making them easier to digest than their unfermented counterparts. For example, lactose — the natural sugar in milk — is broken down during fermentation into simpler sugars — glucose and galactose ( 20 ) (Coyle, 2020).

Our project plans to help to give these nutrients and enzymes to the less fortunate so that many of them do not die of malnutrition. We are finding out how the type of rice affects the rate of fermentation so that the food can ferment faster and be brought to the people faster and in larger quantities. From our research, we came out with a hypothesis that Japanese rice would produce the most amount of alcohol and Glutinous rice would produce the least amount of alcohol. The reason behind this is that glutinous rice has a very low amylose content which the yeast can ferment and turn into alcohol.

From our experiment and data, we got results that were shocking. We figured out that Basmati rice actually had the fastest rate of fermentation(this may be due to its length) and glutinous rice had the slowest rate of fermentation. We suspected that the glutinous rice was like this due to the absence of one of its starch amylose. Our results supported our hypothesis in 1 type of rice and the rest would be needed to be studied and researched more. Basmati rice could be further studied to see if the length of rice affects the rate of fermentation.

5.2 Contributions of research

My team has contributed by comparing the rates of fermentation of different types of rice. This research finding contributes to the UN sustainable development goal 3 which is Good Health and Wellbeing. There are still some people who are malnutrition in other parts of the world. They do not have enough food and since fermented products would easily give people the correct nutrients, they can consume fermented products to gain back the nutrients and finite enzymes they need.

5.3 Practical Applications

This would impact science as it allows people to know which type of rice ferments the fastest. They will know that the amount starch in the rice would be affecting the rate of fermentation(slower). There would be a higher production of rice wine since the fermentation period can be faster. This would allow rice wine or fermented products to be produced faster and possibly in larger quantities.

Fermentation helps break down nutrients in food, making them easier to digest than their unfermented counterparts. For example, lactose — the natural sugar in milk — is broken down during fermentation into simpler sugars — glucose and galactose ( 20 ) (coyle, 2020). This research concludes that fermentation is crucial for a living organism’s health and they require this in order to not be malnutritioned. Fermentation would give a person more nutrition and replenish the enzymes that their body requires and are finite.

5.4 Areas for further study

Further studies could include more studies on other different types of rice or more types of mixed rice (such as glutinous and red rice or basmati and jasmine rice). There are still many types of rice we have not experimented with (about 40,000 more)(bonappetit,2020). There might be a specific type of rice that ferments extremely fast. The independent variable could be the same as our current experiment, which is the different types of rice and the dependent variable could be the concentration of alcohol in the rice wine after fermentation. It may be a hassle finding more types of rice as they may not be commonly available in Singapore. Some of which may cost a ton and are too rare. The fermentation time period also takes a long time so it may be an inconvenience. This study can in turn into a solution for which rice ferments the fastest for it to be given to malnutrition people so that they can replenish their enzymes in them.

Another further study could include if the length of rice affects the fermentation rate(exposed surface area). We had basmati rice as the highest rate of fermentation and we were curious to see if the length of the rice or surface area of the rice actually affected the rate of fermentation. This experiment could be slightly more convenient due to the fact that the type of rice is the same. The dependent variable could be the concentration of alcohol on the rice and the independent variable could be the length of the rice. This study could again, turn into a solution for which rice ferments the fastest for it to be given to malnutrition people so that they can replenish their enzymes in them.