Folic acid fortification of parboiled rice has been systematically studied to obtain quantitative insights into the role of key process variables. Parboiling was conducted with brown rice soaked at 70 degrees C for 1, 2 and 3 h with four different fortificant concentrations added and dried parboiled rice was milled for three durations (i.e. 0, 60 and 120 s). Both residual folate concentration in treated parboiled rice and pH of the soaking water after soaking stages were measured. Multifactorial model was developed to describe the residual folate retention behaviour and suggested that both soaking and milling were significant factors in folic acid fortification. The optimum soaking time was deduced to be 1.97 h. Folate retention rate followed a 1st order kinetics while the rates of natural rice hydrolysis and folate uptake were both time-dependent. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.