Quality of product obtained from dehydration process is important to consumer and food manufacturer. Experiment results from the in-store drying technique using ambient air temperature have shown that the head rice yield, stickiness and whiteness of samples dried from initial moisture contents of 18.5-20.6% to 13.3 +/- 0.6% wet basis at temperature of 30 +/- 4 degreesC and specific airflow rates of 0.65-1.5 m(3)/min m(3) of paddy reduces but hardness increases. As compared with the qualities of control samples which were gently dried by ambient air aeration in thin layer dryer, they are all slightly different. A near-equilibrium drying model incorporating the yellowing kinetics of paddy is proposed which takes accounts of the experimental observations. The model is reasonable to predict the experimental data. The simulation results indicate that the degree of whiteness depends on temperature, relative humidity, loading capacity and airflow rate. The relative humidity lower than 70% and specific airflow rate higher than 0.75 m(3)/min m(3) of paddy are recommended. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.