Bugs in my rice

vir

Spread it out in sunlight for few hours. After that you can wash it as a added measure.

I have not done this myself but seen in India so I am not sure how effective it is.

BharathMusafir

Hi Vir,

The one you have seen in India is water soaked rice to dry in Sunlight and later they will send it to mill to grind it either in powder form and small grain form to prepare Indian Breakfasts like Idli, Upma etc..

the opoponax

Agh! Not an hour after commenting on this post, I opened a new box of pasta, emptied it into the boiling water, and scores of little flash-boiled weevil carcasses floated to the top. Eeeww! This never happens!

Actually, I checked the box, and it turned out I'd bought what seemed to be the last box to come out of Pompeii before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Took it back to the shop for a refund and decided to get dinner out tonight...

SitaParityaga

All my old flour, beans, spices, whatever, gets some kind of "life" dancing around in it. Lucky you, you got $ back!!!!

jenk

this happens all the time with grain products. If its just those long black insects, you can put the rice into a fine-grained sieve and shake. Most will come out, along with some dust from their eating. Repackage and continue using - they do not really affect the flavor - you can sieve again if you see them again.

Then, when you are ready to prepare your rice, wash it thoroughly, in several rinses of water, running your hand through, until the water is clear and all the debris and bugs are gone. Indian and Chinese rices are meant to be washed before use, and basmati improves further if it is drained and allowed to sit and dry out a bit before cooking.

there are some insects which make more of a webby or clumpy mess in your grain or beans. For that, just throw it out, but if its just those skinny rice or flour bugs/weevils, they can be dealt with without disposal.

Aishah

I wouldn't throw it away - do the spread out in sunshine thing, the bugs walk away of their own accord. Then re-store in airtight container. You are going to cook the rice anyway which will 'kill' any sort of contamination. This happens here from time to time and that's what I do. Weevils in flour are worse as jenk mentions - I throw out all the webby stuff and if the rest looks o.k. I keep that. As you originally posted, Gardener, it does indicate your product is not contaminated with pesticides and to my mind that is a good thing. It's like cutting worms out of veggies or fruit!

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the opoponax

Yeah, but on the other hand, they're not supposed to be selling food that's 4 months past it's expiry date (I had just bought the pasta this afternoon). I could have reported them to the health inspector, let alone ask for my measly $2.49 back!

capt_mahajan

singing weevil weevil rock you!?

sorry, couldn't resist.

Gardener972

The rice I have is "India's Premium Quality" Aged Basmati Rice... great rice once I wash all the little critters out. Since I hate to waste anything, I'll continue to wash it.

This reminds me of a dish I once prepared when our daughter was little and I added some kind of spice to it and while we were eating it our daughter asked what those little black things were in it. Upon close inspection, I realized they were TINY black beetles but, not wanting to throw out the food, I said they were spices. We ate all our food and I told her years later and we all had a good laugh about it. Now, she'll periodically ask about a particular spice or seed to make sure it's not the "special" spice.

Prashant.M

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ashokm

I am with Vir on this - spread it thin (few sheets of newspaper may be) out in the sun for a day, and that will sort out most of the bugs. However, trick is to make sure they don't come back - make sure you clean your store room / cupboards really well with a disinfectant, and may be move the rice to some other place and even into an air tight container! Good luck!

Aishah

LOL, Captain! Your story Gardener reminds me of the time I ate ants in the Marmite on my toast - they were literally drowned in it and I hadn't realized they were there when I spread the toast. Just didn't want to waste my breakfast! They tasted like Marmite plus extra protein!

burf

i haven't heard about them or seen them, strange... or am i missing something? i will check out these bugs things with rice

machadinha

Just let the sack stand opened for long enough, and presto, your very own Wild Wild Kingdom

ps Those webbie things are more common in my experience yes. Yuck. And pps I do stand corrected, there's probably nothing wrong with eating those bugs, and I'm sure they are served as a delicacy somewhere in the world, deep-fried or fricasseed or otherwise. Hey, vegetarianism has its benefits.

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jenk

ground chiles and some other spices seem prone to develop infestations of hard round bugs. I guess they just added a little protein to your dish! Good way of handling it!

I should have added that freezing your flour and other grains and spices on receipt supposedly will kill these critters. Most grains, dal flour spices etc are not perfectly clean and eventually some bugs will become evident. But freezing is supposed to kill off whatever comes with the pack. FWIW, Ive never done it myself, though my refrigerated flour does not appear to get buggy.