Objective To further understand the influence of the heat transfer process on the quality of self-heating foods and improve the heating rate of existing self-heating rice products.Methods A combination of virtual simulation and experimental methods was used to analyze the actual temperature variations during the heating process of self-heating rice and the effects of heat transfer on rice texture. A three-dimensional heat transfer model of self-heating rice was established using COMSOL software to investigate the heat transfer process, and the packaging design of self-heating rice was optimized with the objective of maximizing the heating rate.Results After reheating and cooling at 20 ℃ for 90 min, differences in textural properties were observed among different layers of self-heating rice. The rice in the middle layer showed higher chewiness and better overall texture, whereas the springiness, cohesiveness, and chewiness of the bottom layer rice were significantly reduced. The established three-dimensional heat transfer model accurately described the temperature changes during the heating process of self-heating rice. In addition, for self-heating rice with the same volume, optimization of packaging dimensions and length-to-width parameter combinations (with a length of 133.49 mm and a width of 120 mm) shortened the heating time by 387 s; The use of a bowl-shaped package (with a top diameter of 273 mm and a bottom diameter of 200 mm) shortened the heating time by 194 s; And the application of a novel aluminum foil-bottom packaging material shortened the heating time by 251 s. Compared with the original commercial packaging, all these optimization strategies significantly improved the heating performance of self-heating rice.Conclusion The combination of virtual simulation and experimental methods used in this study can intuitively describe the heat transfer performance of self-heating rice, and optimization of self-heating rice packaging can effectively improve the heat transfer rate.