Rice beyond staple food: Advances in value added rice products: A review

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) serves as a primary staple food for more than half of the global population, playing a crucial role in food security, nutrition, and cultural traditions, particularly across Asia. Rice has changed from being a traditional staple to a versatile raw material for a wide range of value added products due to rapid urbanisation, changes in lifestyle, and the growing need for convenience and functional foods. This review critically synthesises traditional knowledge and recent scientific advancements in value added rice products, including whole rice based foods, fermented products, extruded and fortified rice, rice based beverages, germinated brown rice, instant rice, and new uses like space nutrition. Processing technologies, nutritional and physicochemical changes, functional advantages, and public health significance are highlighted. The review emphasises how technological interventions including parboiling, fermentation, extrusion, germination, and fortification improve nutritional quality, shelf stability, and consumer acceptance. There is also discussion of future research goals and obstacles in the areas of functional food production, scalability, and the effectiveness of fortification.