The Development of Rice Bran Oil

This golden, newly developed variety of oil is already highly appealing just by its appearance—yet many people still do not know what benefits it offers. A recent interview revealed that rice bran oil has long been regarded in Japan as a health-promoting oil that helps improve sub-health conditions, and a significant proportion of Japanese primary and secondary school students consume it. More than 40% of Japanese students eat rice bran oil. As is well known, the Japanese are “world-famous” for their long working hours, which has led to frequent cases of “karoshi” (death from overwork) and a large population suffering from sub-health; the government has even had to enact legislation to address this issue. Consequently, Japanese households place great emphasis on healthy diets. Experts explain that Japan has historically been a country that values rice: not only is the quality of its rice exceptionally high, but the Japanese have also long recognized the nutritional value of the rice bran and germ—the outer layers and embryo—and have extracted essential bioactive compounds from these parts to produce rice bran oil for cooking, which is remarkably rich in nutrients. Moreover, when steaming rice, adding just a small spoonful of rice bran oil to the rinsed grains can restore the lost nutritional essence, resulting in cooked rice that is glistening, fluffy, and even more delicious. Today, Japan processes rice bran on a large scale into rice bran oil for daily consumption. Rice bran oil is now widely popular in Japan and has become the dedicated cooking oil for the nutritious school lunches served in many primary and secondary schools. According to available data, Japan consumes 80,000 tons of rice bran oil annually, accounting for about 3.5% of its total edible oil consumption. In contrast, China’s rice-processing industry is small-scale and fragmented, making it difficult to utilize rice-bran resources; the utilization rate of rice bran in China is less than 20%, with most of it being used as animal feed or even discarded as waste, leading to serious resource wastage. The main reasons for the low utilization of rice bran for oil production in China are twofold: first, China’s rice-processing enterprises are numerous, widely dispersed, and predominantly small-scale, making it challenging to collect and concentrate rice bran; moreover, rice bran is prone to rancidity and spoilage, and its storage is difficult—technical issues that are hard to resolve. Second, policy measures supporting the development of the rice-bran-oil industry are insufficient. However, in 2017, a major technological bottleneck was finally overcome: according to reports, Yihai Kerry Group, the parent company of Golden Dragon Fish, pioneered a new production model for rice bran oil that features decentralized preservation, centralized extraction, and centralized refining, thereby maximizing the retention of natural bioactive nutrients such as gamma-oryzanol, vitamins, and plant sterols. On October 25, 2016, the International Rice Bran Oil Conference was held in Tokyo, where Golden Dragon Fish rice bran oil, under the Yihai Kerry Group, was awarded the only “International Rice Bran Oil Quality Award” of the conference. From May 15 to 16, 2015, the inaugural International Scientific and Technological Conference on Rice Bran Oil and the founding meeting of the International Rice Bran Oil Council were held in Wuhan. At the event, Chairman Xu Xuebing, representing the International Rice Bran Oil Council, presented the “Health Contribution Award” to Golden Dragon Fish’s Gamma-Oryzanol rice bran oil as well as to related products from Japan, Thailand, and two other countries. On January 9, 2018, Golden Dragon Fish rice bran oil entered the Japanese market, and industry analysts believe that the company’s strong entry could reshape the landscape of Japan’s domestic rice-bran-oil market. In March 2019, Golden Dragon Fish held a celebration marking the first anniversary of the launch of its rice bran oil in Japan, along with a new-product launch event, in Tokyo.