Two conditions,overly fine particles or an increase in the viscosity, suppress the sedimentation velocity of the particles. A separated milling method was established, which reduced the particle size to less than 20 lm. Moreover, the sedimentation velocity decreased exponentially with the viscosity and was steady at more 80 mPa s when the concentration of xanthan gum exceeded 0.1 wt%. A sensory evaluation indicated a favorable rate of 55.6% for the rice slurry containing 0.3 wt% xanthan gum.