Abstract: The objective of this paper was to make a fresh start using high temperature-high pressure-short time extrusion technology to produce ‘engineering rice’ or ‘reconstituted rice’, in a type of reformed instant rice with good rehydration characteristics and edible qualities and with nutrition-fortified attributes, acceptable to different level consumer and updated with the tide. The product was made of rice flour as the main raw material with other grain flour and food additive, completely overcome the limitation of surface treating by traditional processing. The effects of extrusion and tradition process on the quality of instant rice were compared in this paper. The extruded sample was faintly white and opaque. The degree of gelatinization of this instant rice was higher and the bulk density and rehydration rate were also higher than those produced by tradition process, which was white and semitransparent.The texture analysis and sensory testing of rehydrated rice revealed that the quality of instant rice by the extrusion process was better than those by tradition process, except for color, and was very close to fresh hybrid rice.

Key words: extrusion processing, instant rice, rehydration characteristics, texture analysis