Establishment of comprehensive quality evaluation model of fresh instant rice

Background: Although the rice processing characteristics and processing quality evaluation technologies have been studied for many years in China, there have been few reports on the evaluation index system and evaluation method of fresh instant rice processing quality. Objective: The aim of this study was to establish a comprehensive quality evaluation model of fresh instant rice to achieve the effective quantitative quality analysis. Methods: A total of 108 japonica rice varieties were selected as the test samples, followed by the production of fresh instant rice. The color value, physicochemical quality, texture characteristic, and sensory quality of fresh instant rice were systematically analyzed. Difference analysis, correlation analysis, factor analysis, and cluster analysis were used to determine the representative quality indexes of fresh instant rice. Through initialization, forward, and normalization, the standardized indexes (0≤ Xi ≤1) were obtained. The discriminant matrix of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to confirm the weight (Wi) of each representative quality index, establishing the comprehensive quality evaluation model. Results: The variable coefficients of 12 out of 17 quality indexes were more than 10%. There were 136 correlation coefficients, including 15 cases with a significant difference at the level of α = 0.05 and 52 cases with a significant difference at the level of α = 0.01. Five representative quality indexes of fresh instant rice were selected by factor analysis and cluster analysis, including palatability, adhesiveness, b* value, resilience, and iodine color value. And the comprehensive quality evaluation model of fresh instant rice integrating representative indexes was obtained: Y = 0.5650 × palatability + 0.2294 × adhesiveness + 0.0328 × resilience + 0.1175 × b* value + 0.0533 × iodine color value. Conclusion: The AHP combined with factor analysis and cluster analysis can convert a number of quality indexes into a comprehensive quality index, and thus establish the comprehensive quality evaluation model of fresh instant rice, effectively performing the quantitative quality analysis. This model not only provided a scientific basis for the accurate evaluation of fresh instant rice quality, but also laid the foundation for the formulation of fresh instant rice standards in the future.