A final step, brushing, passes the rice through a rapidly revolving cylinder covered with pieces of cowhide or pigskin, which polishes the surface of the grains. A process called parboiling is sometimes used preliminary to hulling. The rough rice is first soaked, then steamed, and dried before removing the hulls. This toughens the endosperm, resulting in less breakage. Most Milled rice is sold for direct consumption.
Some rice is used in breakfast foods - as puffed rice, flakes, or crisped rice.
Broken rice may be used as food or in alcoholic beverages. Rice flour, a product of final milling, is used in various mixes. The bran is used as livestock feed. Rice hulls are used for fuel, insulation, and in some manufacturing processes. Folk medicine practitioners use rice seeds to treat breast cancer, stomach and abdominal ailments, diarrhea and dysentery, fever, jaundice, nausea, psoriasis and other skin ailments.