Cooking and textural properties of some traditional and aromatic rice cultivars

The cooking quality of rice is the most important characteristic that affects consumer acceptance and different methodologies have been proposed for its evaluation. In this work, the quality of 11 rice varieties, 6 traditional and 5 aromatic, was investigated. Image Analysis was used as a tool for measuring the morphological characteristics of the kernel; to predict cooking quality, samples were analyzed for protein, starch, amylose and pasting behaviour; the hardness and the stickiness of cooked rice were measured by extrusion and compression tests. Results were statistically processed. The textural parameters were significantly correlated to each other and to the amylose content and the rheological characteristics of the cooked samples were statistically correlated with the amylographic indices, confirming the importance of the latter parameters as descriptors of the cooking quality of rice. Interesting differences were evidenced between traditional and aromatic rice varieties.