In Japan, patients with rice-associated allergy in the form of atopic dermatitis have appeared, with their number increasing year by year . This situation is a nuisance particulary for the people whose staple food is rice and a great social demand has arisen for palatable hypoaller-genic rice. In response to the demand, we have developed a unique process for removing a major allergenic protein from rice grains by treatment with an added protease. The resulting product has low immunity according to a radioallergosorbent test with blood samples from donors whose immunoglobulin E levels are relatively high. The product has also been evaluated to be effective for more than 40 volunteer patients with rice-associated atopic dermatitis . This hypoallergenic rice is comparable to normal rice with respect to palatability and nutritive value . The process for producing it has already been industrialized ; the product is being used in hospitals for the patients who are forbidden to have normal rice.