Fluidization technique was widely used to dry agriculture products because of its effectiveness in drying. To produce partial-parboiled rice using hot-air fluidization technique has been received increasing attention due to simplicity of operation. Thus, the purpose of this work was to investigate the effects of presteaming time and drying temperatures on qualities of partial-parboiled rice. The results revealed that head rice yield, pasting temperature and degree of gelatinization increased with an increase in presteaming time whereas white belly decreased. The percentage of water uptake of pre-steamed rice decreased with an increase in drying temperature while the percentage of solid loss and stickiness were not affected. The hardness of pre-steamed rice was higher than that of reference rice and it increased with an increase in drying temperature. To obtain the suitable conditions for producing partially-parboiled rice using hot-air fluidization technique, paddy was soaked at temperature of 80 degrees C for 5 h and then it was blown with saturated steam temperature of 102 degrees C for 70 s (pre-steaming). After that it was dried using fluidization technique at hot-air temperature of 140 degrees C for 2 min and then it was tempered for 30 min: furthermore, it was ventilated at ambient air temperature until the final moisture content was approximately 14-16% d.b. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.