ABSTRACT

The analysis of some brands of rice in Nigeria's market was carried out. Some of the parameters considered for the proximate compositions are moisture, ash, crude protein, fats, crude fibre, carbohydrate and swelling capacity. The mineral contents was also analysed and were found to have sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. The results obtained from the analysis show that the moisture content of the milled rice sample is highest in glare rice with the value 12.12% and lowest in caprice with the value 11.52%. The ash content has its highest value in bayelsa rice with 2.25% and lowest value in caprice with 0.35%. The crude fibre calculated in the analysis shows that caprice has the lowest value of 0.18% and glare rice has the highest fibre content of 0.48%. All other samples have close values for the crude fibre content. The results of the crude protein gotten from the analysis show that gwari rice has the highest protein of 9.80% value and generally, the result is higher in local rice sample than those of the foreign rice. The fat content of the analysis shows that those of the foreign rice. The fat content of the analysis shows that caprice has the lowest value with 0.32% and Beta and Tomato-star rice have same value of 0.36% while Abakiliki has the highest value with 0.48%. The carbohydrate content gotten from the experiment shows that caprice has the largest carbohydrate content of 91.80% and bayelsa rise has the lowest value of 88.20%. For the swelling capacity, mass rice has the highest value of 3.17 and caprice has the lowest value of 2.50. In the mineral composition, the calcium content of the rice simple is highest in bayelsa rice with 0.18g/lOog lowest in mass rice and tomato- star rice with 0.08 gIl 00g. For magnesium, tomato-star rice has the highest value of 0.336g/loog and bayelsa rice has the lowest value of 0.048g/loog with no value for caprice. The sodium content of the milled rice samples showed that beta rice has the highest value of 0.ol9glloog and caprice has the lowest value of 0.ol6glloog. The Potassium content has the same value for all except in mass rice with the value of 0.0o8glloog and beta rice with the value of 0.0o7glloog. For the phosphorus content, Bayelsa rice has the lowest value with 0.007g/loog. This is why I will recommend to the consumers to appreciate the local rice samples because they are richer, tastier and more nutritious than the foreign rice.