Bugs in my rice

pundabee

We are staying in Kerala, have a kitchen and do our own cooking. We buy seeds, lentils, chick peas etc. from a local store that specialises in these types of dried foods. Unfortunately, they also seem to specialise in weevils. Every second bag of dried stuff that we buy will contain a number of weevils. The weevils seem to only inhabit bags that the store has packed itself.

As a consequence we have started using a different store where, so far, we haven't had the misfortune of meeting weevils.

Does anyone know/have experience with weevils in their dried foods? How common are they? Are we right in dismissing the first store we used for shopping as unreasonably unhygienic?

Nick-H

I'm not certain if they are weevils, but I have found that every bag of lentils that I buy (or in the jar if they have been decanted) gets to be a wildlife show featuring tiny beetles.

Yes, these were bought as sealed pre-packed plastic bags.

We have also had this experience with cashew nuts.

No, I never stopped buying from that store. I've even bought sugar from our local shop here, where it is sold from an open sack and measured out after wafting the flies away. I guess that, after a while, one just has to change one's standards a little --- though I admit I still prefer to buy my sugar in those pre-packed bags from that same store. I wonder of I'd bother if I saw the packing plant?

As a semi-related aside, about 20 years ago some friends of mine started an Organic-Vegetable delivery service in London. Of course, no pesticides would be used on such plants.

For the first week or two they had a regular streem of complaints from people finding insects and caterpillars with their veg! Ummm... yes, Madam, can I take a moment to explain to you what organically grown (for which you have a substantial premium) means!

Unfortunately, in India, I suspect we get the pesticides as well as the pests

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edwardseco

Vacuum pack it or freeze it, life..

pundabee

Never had any problems with cashews. I have just done a close-up study of the activity in the dal lentil jar (I must stress that all our foods are immediately transferred from their bags to air tights containers, so the contamination is not a result of us living in a dirty dump). The weevils are clearly having a feast. A few of them have their snouts buried deep into random lentils. Yum.

the opoponax

This is probably why old recipes always remind you to sift.

kalyani68

Little critters show up in some "export quality" products too. Hence, we rinse our dal before using it. Get rid of extra protein and Indian dust!

Nick-H

The lesser of two weevils...

PeakXV

Actually Dal ka weevil might not be too-too bad. We've, most likely, all had a peck or two of it in our Indian travels but were never officially informed .... I'll bet.

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capt_mahajan

weewil weewil rock you!!!

sorry, couldn't resist

jyotirmoy

Dried leaves of Neem keeps all these weevils away

Gardener972

What do you do when you have bugs in your rice? Is that common? I have a 10 lb. bag of rice that I've used about 1/3 of and it has long, skinny, black bugs in it that look like lice. I wash it and about 10 come floating to the surface and wash away. Would you chunk it and start anew or continue with what I'm doing? One good thing, I know it's not been saturated or fumagated with pesticides!

machadinha

It can happen with flours and grains yes, esp. if left standing for prolonged periods. If it does, I chuck them out, wash the containers well, and start anew, indeed. I don't know if there is a solution; it's been discussed here before. I reckon your local bakery or organic food store should have some tips if you want to get to the bottom of it. Another simple solution is buy smaller quantities.

Those black bugs are likely weevils (but you can get other bugs in there) and you don't want to eat them, although like many bugs they might likely be good for protein. Soldiers in combat and other starving people have been known to eat them, but mostly because they have no choice.

See also this thread: Evil weevil

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BharathMusafir

These bugs are common for people in India when we buy rice. What usually we do is, pour water and rinse they all float up to the surface, just throw that water. Add some more water rinse again and throw. It does not impact to health. I heard some tricks to prevent these bugs from entering into the rice container or make them run away from the Container is to place either Garlic or Indian Neem leaves. I might be wrong.

But one thing is for sure, no impact for health.

the opoponax

The best way to prevent this, in my experience, is to buy rice in relatively small packages and either transfer to an airtight tupperware style container or put the whole package inside a gallon size ziploc. It keeps my flour from going weevilly, at least (and I bake much less often than I eat rice).

Washing rice is also good.

SitaParityaga

Gardener972: just out of curiosity, was it imported rice? I see you're from TX.