Bread staling is a serious economic issue for the baking industry. Here, we found that shorter amylopectin
chains caused by mutations play a role in maintaining the softer texture of rice bread. We used
three rice cultivars that have a high proportion of short amylopectin chains in endosperm starch, two of
which were starch branching enzyme I mutants, to make gluten-free and gluten-containing bread.
Compression tests showed that the hardening rates for both types of bread made from these cultivars
were markedly lower than those for control rice breads (gluten-free bread: 14%e39%, gluten-containing
bread: 13%e27%), although there were no clear differences in the hardness values among the breads one
day after baking. Sensory tests conducted two days after baking showed that gluten-free breads made
from the three cultivars were softer than the control breads. Amylose contents, flour particle sizes, and
damaged starch contents were similar among the flour samples, indicating that shorter amylopectin
chains led to the slow-hardening of the rice bread. This finding can be applied not only to the breeding of
rice cultivars for softer bread, but also to breeding of wheat and other cereals for bread.