Effects of storage methods on viscosity and fatty acid content of rice

Rice quality properties in terms of viscosity, appearance and fatty acids content were studied by a series of contrastive experiments in a storage room with the range of temperature of 18～25℃ and mean relative humidity of 65%～75%, which were representative storage conditions for the rice in Northern China. The results showed that the highest viscosity value and breakdown value was higher, and gelatinization value was lower for rice stored with vacuum method than that with conventional method. The highest viscosity and fatty acids content increased and breakdown value decreased with the increase of initial moisture content of rice for the stored rice. The vacuum storage is an effective method to delay the rice aging process. Therefore, the vacuum stored method is better than that of conventional method to maintain rice taste. Significance orders for the factors to influence fatty acids content are, in turn, stored method, moisture content and stored duration.