Abstract: This work was conducted to study the effect of fatty acids (oleic acid and linoleic acid) on the taste quality of cooked rice from the cultivar ‘Kenyu 38’. Its texture, volatile flavor compounds and starch gelatinization characteristics were measured by using a cooked rice hardness viscometer, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and a rapid viscosity analyzer, respectively. The results showed that the amount of complexes formed by oleic acid, linoleic acid and rice starch increased with increasing addition of fatty acids from 1% to 3%. The hardness of cooked rice increased by 9.02%–30.97% and 12.45%–29.10% with addition of oleic acid and linoleic acid, respectively, while the viscosity decreased by 23.28%–53.44% and 11.64%–30.17%, respectively. Compared with linoleic acid, oleic acid molecules were more likely to form a complex with rice starch, leading to a more significant reduction in the viscosity of cooked rice. The addition of oleic acid and linoleic acid significantly increased the final viscosity (from 198.88 RVU to 232.21 and 237.96 RVU, respectively) and retrogradation value (from 59.04 RVU to 126.96 and 90.96 RVU, respectively) of rice starch. Compared with linoleic acid, oleic acid contributed more to the gelatinization properties of rice starch and to the formation of volatile flavor components in cooked rice.

Key words: fatty acids, cooked rice, volatile flavor, starch-lipid complexes