Parboiled rice, also called converted rice, easy-cook rice,^[1] sella rice, and miniket (as predominantly called in West Bengal and Odisha in India, and in Bangladesh) is rice that has been partially boiled in the husk. The three basic steps of parboiling are soaking, steaming and drying.^[2] These steps make the rice easier to process by hand, while also boosting its nutritional profile, changing its texture, and making it more resistant to weevils.^[3] The treatment is practiced in many other parts of the world.^[4]

Parboiling drives nutrients, especially thiamine, from the bran to the endosperm, hence parboiled white rice is mostly nutritionally similar to brown rice.^[5] Given the pale tan color that results from these bran components, parboiled rice is sometimes called saffron sella.

The starches in parboiled rice become gelatinized, then retrograded after cooling. Through gelatinization, amylose molecules leach out of the starch granule network and diffuse into the surrounding aqueous medium outside the granules^[6] which, when fully hydrated are at maximum viscosity.^[7] The parboiled rice kernels should be translucent when wholly gelatinized. Cooling brings retrogradation whereby amylose molecules re-associate with each other and form a tightly packed structure. This increases the formation of type-3, resistant starch which can act as a prebiotic and benefit health in humans.^[8] However, this also makes the kernels harder and glassier. Parboiled rice takes less time to cook and is firmer and less sticky. In North America parboiled rice is often partially or fully precooked before sale. Minerals such as zinc or iron are added, increasing their potential bio-availability in the diet.^{[citation needed]}

Compared to brown rice, parboiling of rice incurs losses of thiamin, niacin, biotin, and pantothenic acid by approximately 70%, 28%, 49% and 25%, respectively. Compared to normal milling, which causes a near 65% loss of all these micronutrients, parboiling preserves more of them.^[5] The specific loss depends on the process used by individual manufacturers: for the USDA #20042 sample, much less loss in these nutrients is observed. Fortification is common for parboiled rice in the United States. Depending upon the method used, levels of arsenic can increase or decrease significantly.^[16]

• Raw paddy rice.
• Vitamins and minerals in the bran.
• Put in a vacuum, rice loses all the air it carries within. In a following warm water bath the nutrients become more soluble and move out of the bran.
• To move these nutrients into the kernel, hot steam and air pressure are used, otherwise they would rinse out into the water.
• Parboiled rice carries most of the nutrients of brown rice. (This graphic does not depict the fraction lost.)

A 2020 scientific study assessed multiple preparation procedures of rice for their capacity to reduce arsenic content and preserve nutrients, recommending a procedure involving parboiling and water absorption.^[18][17]

• Matta rice
• Rice congee
• Ben's Original (formerly known as Uncle Ben's) Converted Rice