The goal of this research was to study the relationship between the eating quality of cooked rice and near infrared spectra measured by a Fourier Transform near infrared (FT–NIR) Spectrometer. Samples of milled: parboiled rice, white rice, new Jasmine rice (harvested in 2012) and aged Jasmine rice (harvested in 2006 or during the period 2007–2011) were used in this study. The eating quality of the cooked rice, i.e., adhesiveness, hardness, dryness, whiteness and aroma, were evaluated by trained sensory panelists. FT–NIR spectroscopy models for predicting the eating quality of cooked rice were established using the partial least squares regression. Among the eating quality, the stickiness model indicated its highest prediction ability (i.e., R²_val = 0.71; RMSEP = 0.65; Bias = 0.00; RPD = 1.87) and SEP/SD of 2. In addition, it was clear that the water content did not affect the eating quality of cooked rice, rather the main chemical component implicated was starch.