Abstract: This article studied systematically the brown rice cracks caused by the factors of sample moisture, air temperatureand air relative humidity (RH) during drying and hygroscopicity. The results showed that only few cracks grow during dryingprocess, but they might appear easily when brown rice was of high moisture content and dried rapidly. The higher the airtemperature and the faster drying speed, the larger will be the moisture and stress gradient caused in the sample kernels, sothe easier the growing of cracks. During hygroscopicity, air RH might affect remarkably the growing of cracks but airtemperature and sample moisture did not. In order to reduce the number of cracking kernels ,the air RH should be controlledrationally during storage of brown rice.

Key words: Drying , Hygroscopicity , Brown rice Crack