Decades of experimentation and equipment changes went into the development of a process to extrude reformed, quick-cooking rice.

Researchers at Wenger Manufacturing Inc.’s technical center in Sabetha, Kan., invested a quarter of a century refining and perfecting an extrusion process for quick-cooking rice. Combining rice flour and water with pressure, heat and mechanical shear to make a gelatinized extrudate that looked like rice could be done from Day One, but duplicating rice’s texture was much more difficult.