Rice is a staple food in Asia and ready-to-eat (RTE) rice markets
are fast growing in Korea and Japan. In Asia, the RTE rice industry
began 20 years ago and currently is a very large and stable industry.
The increasing demand for RTE foods along with low per unit cost
have led to an exponential growth in this industry. The RTE rice
market size in Korea and Japan is currently 300 billion dollar (Lee,
2006). Even though rice is not as popular in USA as it is in Asia, the
RTE rice markets are also growing fast. RTE rice is usually irradiated
or retorted for render it commercially sterile. Byun et al. (2007)
studied the effect of irradiation on RTE rice packaging, but there has
been no studies investigating the effect of retort pouch packaging
on RTE rice.
2004).