PURPOSE: To enable accurate and quick measurement of an objective taste evaluation value, by measuring absorbance by near infrared spectrochemical analysis using a narrow band pass filter with the wavelength giving a conspicuous difference in taste as main wavelength.

CONSTITUTION: A sample rice which reaches a certain white cleaning level being cleaned with a sample rice cleaning device is crushed with a sample crusher to make a powdered rice almost even in the particle size distribution. The powdered rice cleaned is put into a sample container 16 to be inserted into a near infrared spectrochemical analyzer 3. Light from a light source 10 enters an integrating sphere 13 through a narrow band pass filter 12, a reflection mirror 11 and a light admitting window 15 to irradiate the sample rice in the sample container 16. The diffusively reflected light from the sample rice is measured with detectors 14a and 14b and a measured value is stored into a memory 4b linked to a controller 4. A disc of the filter 12 is rotated to perform a measurement sequentially. Thus, actual data are stored once in the memory 4b and computed by a taste evaluation coefficient value previously stored to be shown on a display device 6.