Cooked rice, which was frozen with different freezing rates and
stored at 4 C for 0e14 days, was evaluated for textural properties
using a texture analyser. Results of two major textural parameters
(hardness and adhesiveness) were shown in Tables 2 and 3. The
hardness of cooked rice increased rapidly within 3 days storage
(P < 0.05), and the increase slowed down from 3 to 14 days
(P > 0.05). Most of the loss of texture occurred during the first 7
days of storage, and there was no significant difference in the last 7
days of storage. Cooked rice frozen with slow rate (0.09 C/min) had
a higher hardness of 68.61 N than frozen with fast rate (1.45 C/
min) of 58.72 N. Results of these indicated that freezing rate
determined the hardness of frozen cooked rice for less than 7 days
chill storage. Furthermore, the hardness of cooked rice increased
continually with the amylopectin retrogradation during storage.
This finding was in agreement with the research of Perdon et al.
(1999) and Yu et al. (2009), who reported that starch