Cultivated rice ( Oryza sativa L.) at present sustains two-thirds of the world’s population. Rice is a cereal mainly consumed as a whole grain. It is composed about 90% (dry base) of starch and gelatinization features strongly influence cooked rice texture. Many rice cultivars provide differentent chemico-physical properties, such as appearance, flavor, and texture, with different degrees of palatability. Various products of rice is produced and One of the most important products from rice, canned rice. Canned rice is a ready-to-eat product consumed as a whole grain cereal product. It is produced by packing cleaned milled rice into a can together with liquid, such as soup or water (wet pack) or without liquid (dry pack), and then sterilized. Starch gelatinization in rice kernels during thermal processing by steam contribute to texture changing. During storage or cooling, starch in the cooked rice undergoes retrogradation. Amylose fraction retrogrades after cooking and during storage while the amylopectin remains in an amorphous state. The amylopectin fraction maybe recrystalizes during storage and contributes to starch retrogradation. During the storage this factors lead to reduced eating quality of cooked rice In the present work, physico-chemical properties and hydration kinetics of two Iranian rice cultivars (Tarom Hashemi Tarom mahali mazandaran) and one Indian rice cultivar (Basmati) was studied. Then after, physical and sensory properties of canned rice produced by the 3 cultivars were investigated. In order to improve cooked rice texture and reducing retrogradation of the product during storage, two types of stabilizers (Xanthan Mono-di-glyceride) were used. The result of Physico-Chemical properties shows that Basmati cultivar had the larger seed length, lower bulk density, higher 1000 kernel weight, higher amylose and protein content. L/B (length-breath) and elongation ratio were observed to be highest in Basmati and lowest in Iranian cooked rice. In addition, basmati had the higher water absorption during soaking and cooking and lower solid liberation to water during cooking. These properties make Basmati cultivar suitable for canned rice. Modeling of hydration kinetics shows that the Page, Modified Page and logarithmic models are well fit soaking characteristic of the samples. In start of storage Basmati had more hardness and lowest cohesivness in compare to Iranian cultivar. During storage hardness for all cultivar increased and cohesivness deacresed. Result of color measurement shows that basmati had the highest b value(positive, yellowness) and Tarom mazandaran had the higher L(lightness) value. FT-IR and texture result show that additives can reduce starch retrogradation during storage. Finally, sensory properties of the samples revealed that Basmati had the best appearance, texture and total acceptance while Tarom hashemi had the best aroma and taste.
