The influx of convenience foods has brought consumers rice in bags, cartons, pouches, trays and more. Rice can be purchased cooked or uncooked and is available dry, refrigerated, frozen, or ready to heat and eat right off the supermarket shelf. Few foods are packaged in so many different ways and are offered in as many varieties as rice. To satisfy the needs and preferences of consumers, and the processing requirements of packaged foods, rice is available in many different forms.

• Brown
• Regular-Milled White
• Parboiled
• Precooked

What is the difference between the culinary term 'parboiling' and the rice term 'parboiling'? 

In culinary terminology, parboiling something means partially cooking it so as to be able to fully cook it in a shorter time, later. The rice term, parboiling, means to process the rice under pressure so as to seal the grains and make water harder to penetrate the grain, yielding a separate grain that is golden or yellow in color. This process makes it longer to cook parboiled rice than regular rice. ( 25 minutes versus 20 minutes).