Abstract: In order to establish a method for evaluating the taste quality of rice, fuzzy sensory evaluation combined with texture analysis and electronic tongue was used to evaluate the taste quality of cooked rice. The results showed that ‘Dalixiang’ and ‘5H25’ rice cultivars exhibited the best and worst taste based on the fuzzy sensory evaluation and texture analysis, respectively. ‘Dalixiang’, ‘Dalixixiang’ and ‘Jinmazhan’ had similar sensory scores without significant differences in texture (P > 0.05). Electronic tongue gave a good distinction between raw and cooked rice from different varieties by principal component analysis, and the results were consistent with the fuzzy sensory evaluation. A model for evaluating rice taste was established by partial least squares regression analysis, with a correlation coefficient of 0.954 06, which had good performance in predicting the taste of different varieties of rice. Sensory evaluation combined with electronic tongue analysis makes it easy to achieve accurate and reliable evaluation of rice taste quality.

Key words: rice, taste quality, fuzzy sensory evaluation, texture, electronic tongue