Selecting high amylose rice variety for puffing: A correlation between physicochemical parameters and sensory preferences

Abstract

Selection of rice variety for puffing is primarily dependent upon its amylose content which is directly correlated with its expansion during puffing and its sensory preferences. However, the sensory preferences also vary among puffed rice produced from different varieties of rice with similar high amylose content. Current work aims to establish a method for selecting a rice from a group of similar high amylose containing varieties by forming correlations between sensory characteristics of puffed rice with physicochemical properties of respective high amylose rice. A total twenty-five different analyses were conducted with each sample and statistically analyzed to deliver the significant set of parameters among them. Using Friedman's non-parametric analysis, significant differences in sensory parameters were observed for color, crispness, length, and width of the puffed rice produced from similar high amylose rice varieties. The tested parameters were then correlated with the physicochemical properties of their respective similar amylose rice varieties. It was found among twenty-five tested parameters of rice fourteen grain parameters i.e., length, width, geometric mean diameter, density, porosity, total ash, acid insoluble ash, protein, gelatinization enthalpy, hardness, sphericity, lightness, relative crystallinity, and peak gelatinization temperature has a definite impact on the sensory preference of puffed rice produced from them.