Rice question

[vsoy]

I bought a big bag of rice from Costco back in November. I opened it in December and went away for 12 days. I've been really busy and haven't been able to make a lot of rice the past 2 months but I've noticed when I wash it, there are these teeny, teeny black dots in the wash. At first, I attributed it to some debris from the wild rice I threw in my rice storage container. But I've finished and refilled the container with regular white rice in the last 2 months and I still sometimes see the floaty black things.

They are really, really small and I can't make out any distinguishing features except they are incredibly small and black. I haven't gotten sick from it and it's nothing I've ever seen before.

I generally buy rice from Costco because it's been reliable and I had a very bad experience buying it from a small Asian grocery store. It was filled with white, crawling maggots when I opened it, which sent me screaming and throwing the whole bag(triple bagged and knotted) in the dumpster immediately, immediately, immediately.

Has anyone seen anything like this and should I be worried? I still have a lot of it and money's tight.

[ellencho]

I've never experienced anything like that, but if you're in doubt toss the bag and buy a new one. With your next bag of rice you'll remember to store it more carefully.

Wherever you store your rice make sure you clean it out and properly dry it before adding your rice to it, and try to keep it somewhere cool and dry so as not to tempt mold and fungus growth.

[toml]

Are you sure those floaty black things aren't bugs as well?

I remember encountering floaty black bugs before so double check it.

It should be alright though.

[vsoy]

I just can't tell if the floaty things are bugs, they are too small. I feel like I'm going blind or crazy. When I look at the rice in the bag and my container, it looks fine, but when I wash it, then I see a few floaty things. When the rice is cooked, it looks fine, I don't see them. But when I made rice porridge today, I noticed them again while I was cooking. I couldn't bring myself to eat it.

The bag of rice came with a ziplock top and I keep my rice in a metal container and I put a can of peeled tomatoes on top in my pantry. I'm just wondering if I got a bad bag or some stuff my mom gave me during Christmas had some hitchhikers. Oh, it's going to be so much fun tearing apart my pantry tommorow. :evil:

[ellencho]

I had a similar problem with these weird mothlike bugs infesting my kitchen. The larvae made these weird coccoons and infested anything that had a surface. I ended up tossing a bunch of stuff just because I didn't want to deal with the hassle. It was a lesson learned. I'm not sure if they're from the Chinese market or not. My mom's good friend had them too so I'm wondering if maybe they came from stuff she had given to my mom.

Since you had zip tops on your rice and all I'm thinking it's some sort of fungal infestation that you've got on your hands. Definitely get rid of it because you don't want to contaminate anything else in your kitchen.

[Speaker4TheDead]

I had a similar problem with these weird mothlike bugs infesting my kitchen. The larvae made these weird coccoons and infested anything that had a surface.

Same here. Orkin guy came by and didn't even know what they were called, so he just sprayed the infested areas with some generic stuff. The worst thing was that these moths had their larvae wriggling all around inside our rice sack. Since then we got a rice dispenser to solve that problem, but the moths are still showing up somehow.

[Taliesin Stormheller]

Do NOT open your rice bag unless you will consume it all within the next month.

[ellencho]

It's cool to store rice for a long time after you've opened it. I'll buy 10 lb bags of Jasmine rice and keep it in a clean, tightly lidded tupperware for months at a time and I've never had a problem with mold or insect infestation. Sometimes if the tupperware is too full I'll tie up the rest of my rice in a couple tightly sealed plastic shopping bags.

If you're really worried, buy yourself one of those rice dispensers that Speaker4theDead mentioned. They're really convenient and will give you premeasured portions of rice. The one my mom has gives a choice of two different settings for amounts of rice.

[awong]

my mom buys those really heavy bags of rice when she needs to open it she stores it in this huge container. I don't think I've ever heard her say anything of the moths or the larva. Roaches are more of a problem duh its florida

[toml]

I keep my rice in the fridge.

[vsoy]

Any good rice dispenser brands you can recommend? I buy rice in the 25 pound sack size.

[KeJia Sista]

Any good rice dispenser brands you can recommend? I buy rice in the 25 pound sack size.

Ok it sounds crazy but we use a small plastic garbage can with the fitted lid. No bugs or eggs.

Ke Jia

[inferno]

But I've finished and refilled the container with regular white rice in the last 2 months and I still sometimes see the floaty black things.

They are really, really small and I can't make out any distinguishing features except they are incredibly small and black.
Perhaps you should invest in a couple of these:

http://www.hamsterforpresident.com/mousetrap.jpg

[Dialectic]

Ok it sounds crazy but we use a small plastic garbage can with the fitted lid.

Ha ha, my moms does the same thing! Only she uses a BIG one.

[awong]

Any good rice dispenser brands you can recommend? I buy rice in the 25 pound sack size.

Ok it sounds crazy but we use a small plastic garbage can with the fitted lid. No bugs or eggs.

Ke Jia

I was trying to say I used that too, but I kinda felt weird calling it a small garabage can lol. It works though.

[KeJia Sista]

Ok it sounds crazy but we use a small plastic garbage can with the fitted lid.

Ha ha, my moms does the same thing! Only she uses a BIG one.

We had a big one when I was growing up. This one is probably midsize actually.

Speaking of rice, a few years ago this purple rice was popular. Does anyone know of it? Don't see around anymore.

Ke Jia

[awong]

I just read this on purple rice on google
http://www.ochef.com/743.htm
my mom does something to turn the white rice purple when making spanish food.

[KeJia Sista]

I just read this on purple rice on google
http://www.ochef.com/743.htm
my mom does something to turn the white rice purple when making spanish food.

Yes, thats the stuff!
It was like when I discovered blue corn.

Ke Jia

[aelward]

It's been a while, but we would sometimes get bug infestations in rice that has been sitting around for a while. They were usually little black bugs. I was always told that they hatched from eggs that were already in the rice, so that there was nothing you could really do about them.