Abstract
Rice grains cooked in hot water (100°C) for selected periods of time were quenched and dissected into thin slices (40μm). The birefringence images of these slice showed the gelatinized region to be clearly separated from the ungelatinized region, enabling the progress of gelatinization to be visualized in the grain during cooking. It was observed that the gelatnization was initiated from the outer surface as well as from cracks which formed when the grains were immersed in water. These cracks facilitated the progress of starch gelatinization in the grain, resulting in the formation of two or three spherical ungelatinized regions in the grain in the late period of cooking.
