Podcast
Innovation turns rice into bread
Updated: 2010-07-15 11:10
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Japan's consumer electronics maker Sanyo has launched the world's first cooker that can turn rice grains into bread - an innovation that it hopes will be a hit across Asia.
The machine can mill a cup of rice grains into rice flour, then mix it with water, gluten, yeast and other ingredients to bake a loaf of bread in four hours, Sanyo Electric said.
The Gopan machine will be exported to other Asian countries next year, after its Japanese launch in October, "mainly to China and Southeast Asia, which share the culture of growing rice," said spokeswoman Liu Yingying.
The machine would retail for about $560.
Wheat-free bread is good for people allergic to the grain, Sanyo said, noting that the machine can also operate without using gluten, which is taken from wheat and helps dough to rise.
Sanyo argued that another benefit would be that in Japan the cooker would increase rice consumption, helping increase the country's low food self-sufficiency ratio.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, now produces only 40 percent of its food and buys almost all its wheat, corn and soy beans from overseas.
Questions:
1. Who is launching an innovative breadmaker?
2. How does the machine work?
3. What is the benefit of using rice to make bread?
Answers:
1. Japan's consumer electronics maker Sanyo has launched the world's first cooker that can turn rice grains into bread.
2. The machine can mill a cup of rice grains into rice flour, then mix it with water, gluten, yeast and other ingredients to bake a loaf of bread in four hours.
3. Sanyo said the cooker would increase rice consumption in Japan, helping increase the country's low food self-sufficiency ratio. Japan, the world's second-largest economy, now produces only 40 percent of its food.
（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is fluent in Korean and has a 2-year-old son.
