Instant rice products are a large group of convenient products and the flavor of these products is the important indicator for the evaluation. Starch, as one of the main components of rice products, is involved in their flavor formation and release. The common mechanism of the contribution of starch com-ponents to flavor was summarized. The role of starch components in the flavor formation and release for six main categories of instant rice products were exampled. These instant rice products included instant rice at room temperature, instant rice by extrusion, fermented rice cake, extruded rice noodles, and rice dump-ling. The trend in research and development of the contribution of starch to flavor is put forward in order to provide important scientific basis for the development of instant rice products with high quality.