Ace Food Desk – Rice grown in China also has better texture now, Chinese researchers say in note for Nature after article flags climate change impact

The taste of rice in China has improved over the past decade or so, Chinese researchers have discovered.

Their findings indicate that increasing yields to meet food security does not have to come at the cost of quality.

Taste tests by the China National Rice Research Institute found that the quality of the Asian rice grown in China – including its appearance and texture – had improved since 2009.

“Measures such as genetic improvement and monitoring of planting environments have contributed to this advance,” the researchers said in a correspondence article published in the journal Nature on December 30.

The improvement had “occurred alongside a marked increase in the efficiency of rice production as measured by total factor productivity”, they wrote.

Lu Lin, first author of the note and an associate researcher at the institute, shared that China’s rice taste score soared from 74.9 points in 2009 to 80.3 points in 2022.

“I think that at present, rice yield and quality can be developed in parallel,” Lu said.

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