Sensory texture of cooked rice is rather linked to chemical than to physical characteristics of raw grain

This paper describes the multidimensional features of the texture of cooked rice (in particular the visual aspect and mechanical attributes) determined by sensorial analysis and links these attributes with a wide range of physicochemical characteristics of raw grain (in particular certain cell wall components). Textural classes of cooked rice did not fit classical grain ranking, which is primarily based on shape. For the classification of cultivars, it would be preferable to use chemical characteristics of raw kernels such as amylose content and Tgel (for prediction of firmness), but also protein (adhesiveness and stickiness) and arabinoxylan contents (deformation), which determine the textural properties of cooked rice. Leached amylose has been measured, and the particular role of soluble amylose on the surface behaviour (stickiness and adhesiveness) of the cooked grain is discussed.