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Sheldon Sheldon is offline
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Default Best way to store uncooked rice?

Ted Campanelli wrote:
>>
> > I checked two bags of rice I had stored and both had little bugs on
> > the inside. What is the best way to store uncooked rice to avoid bugs
> > or is there no way to prevent it? A friend told me that she stores her
> > bags of rice in the fridge until needed.
> >
> > Anthony

>
> The best way (especially for long term storage) is to put the rice in
> airtight container(s) along with an oxygen absorber packet or 2
> (depending on the size of the container).
>
> As others have stated, the insect eggs are most likely already on the
> rice. �Removing the oxygen will not only increase the amount of time the
> rice can be stored, but prevent (or kill) any insect eggs from
> developing/hatching.



I use those O2 absorbant packets (Honeyvillegrain.com sells them) but
they do nothing to curtail insects in grains, all they do is retard
oxidation [a little], thereby maintaining general quality just a wee
bit longer; flavor, aroma, color, texture. The best way to store rice
(or any food) long term is *don't*, for rice do not buy more than you
can use within six months, three month's worth is better. Rice is
harvested somewhere in the world on a regular basis, unless one lives
in extreme poverty there is no reason to cache rice... for anyone
living anywhere in the US it's absolutely imbecilic to store any food
longer than the USDA recommendations. And rice is very inexpensive,
and there isn't anymore than a few pennies per pound savings by buying
in large quantities (this is true for all grains). and for those who
devote major freezer space to store grains it's costing them more in
freezer space than the few pennies lost by buying smaller quantities,
I've never seen a time in my life when rice was unavailable at every
grocery store in the US.... freezing grain products is false economy,
investing in food is no economy at all.

I don't use a lot of rice so I almost always buy rice in the 5lb size,
however I will buy a 10 lb size of basmati because that seems to be
the only size I ever see, it's imported and comes in a cloth sack....
basmati is an unclean product and must be washed, washed very well.
Rice grown and packaged in the US is clean and needs no washing, in
fact fortified rice should not be washed. Fortified rice has vitamins
and minerals added, washing removes them. Plain unfortified white
rice, like basmati, other than carbos contains practically zero
nutritional value... living on a diet composed entirely of basmati
rice results in a slow painful death by starvation.

Where I lived on Lung Guyland (Brentwood) there was a huge Hispanic
population (a fairly large Asian population too), seeing families
pushing two shopping carts was common and they bought rice in 100 lb
sacks, usually two at a time but they lived two-three, even four
families to a household, and they had huge families, tons of kids, and
even aunts, uncles, cousins, and even friends all lived communal
style... a hundred pounds of rice was consumed in less than a week...
they bought dried beans in 100lb sacks too... rice and beans and corn
tortillas was eaten at every meal, even breakfast, and eaten in
quantity. None of those households stored rice longer than a week or
two... no air tight containers, the 100 pound sack stands on the
kitchen floor in a corner and is scooped directly.

Unless you live somewhere like Somalia it's just plain silly to horde
so much rice that you need to concern yourself with long term storage.