To determine drying characteristics and moisture diffusivities under different heating conditions, the rice temperature and moisture loss were measured at the end of each heating period. After IR heating, the rice temperature was measured using a Type T thermocouple - time constant 0.15 s - (Omega Engineering Inc. Stamford, CT) immediately after heated rice was collected into a container. The thermocouple was kept at the center of the rice mass until the temperature reading was stabilized, which normally took from 10 to 30 s. The average temperature of three replicates for each treatment is reported. The rice samples were weighted using a balance with two-decimal accuracy before and after heating. The weight loss during heating and the initial MC were used to calculate the moisture removal during the heating period. The moisture removal was calculated as the difference between the initial MC and the MC after treatment.