Defatted rice would reduce fat intake without sacrificing eating quality

• Rice fat are negatively correlated with rice aroma, integrity, and taste; • Average accuracy of machine learning is as high as 98% for Random Forest; • Defatting would not likely adversely influence the eating quality of rice; • Removal of rice fat would contribute to delaying fat intake level by 3-4 years; • Fat intake would be reduced to recommended range resulted from rice fat removal. Rice fat influences storage stability, processing performance, and eating quality attributes. This study examines the role of fat in rice eating quality and evaluates the potential impact of defatting on rice eating quality and fat intake. Herein, we find that the presence of fat and fatty acid in rice is negatively correlated with amylose content, final viscosity, and multiple sensory traits like rice aroma, integrity, and taste. Defatting significantly reduces rice fat and fatty acid levels while increasing amylose content, protein content, peak viscosity, breakdown viscosity, and swelling power. Six machine learning models achieve high accuracy in predicting taste categories, and the results demonstrate that defatting does not sacrifice the eating quality of rice. Besides, we characterize the relative contribution of rice fat to total fat intake from 2022 to 2031 in two countries using Long Short-Term Memory networks. Total fat intake will be reduced by 3.55% and 4.77%, respectively, if regular rice is replaced by defatted rice in China and Vietnam. It is worthwhile to mention that the fat intake of Chinese men aged 30-59 in 2017 and Vietnamese women aged 30-59 in 2031 would be reduced to the recommended range. Defatted rice consumption helps align total fat intake with dietary recommendations in populations where fat intake is currently excessive. Transitioning to defatted rice is one example of how food processing may contribute to human health improvement.