Question

What treatment should be given to pulses which are hard to dehusk?

(a) Soak with hot water

(b) Apply red earth

(c) Soak with cold water

(d) Apply black soil

The question was posed to me in an interview.

My question is from Size Reduction in chapter Size Reduction of Food Processing Unit Operations

Answer 1

The correct option is (b) Apply red earth

Easy explanation: Wet method of pulse processing involves cleaning to remove dust, dirt, chaff, stone pieces, immature grains and other seeds. The easy to dehusk pulses are then soaked into water for a period of 2- 8 hrs whereas husks which are difficult to dehusk are treated with red earth. The pulses are subsequently dried and then subjected to dehusking and splitting to obtain Dal.