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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] off topic: rice bugs
  • Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:51:26 -0500


On Jan 12, 2011, at 9:42 AM, Ginda Fisher wrote:

I often find narrow black bugs in my rice or other cereal products. They are probably some sort of weevil. We just opened a 5lb bag of rice, and it has a lot of them. Usually, I dump a new 5lb bag of rice into a nice metal tin, but I don't want to contaminate the tin with this infestation, nor do I want it to spread to the flour.

The internet suggests throwing away the rice, but that seems awfully wasteful, and it's not that hard to rinse the rice before cooking it, and I'm certain they are harmless to eat if I miss a few. But I'd like to kill this colony so they don't spread. I wondered if "cooking" the rice by putting it in a heat-proof container in the oven would work, and if the rice would still cook properly with water later. Or microwaving it?

Any ideas?

Ginda
in eastern MA, where we have a lot of snow today, and I have time to mess with the rice.


Freeze it. A good cold deepfreeze (0ºF) for three days or longer ought to kill both the bugs and any eggs, and won't affect the cooking quality of the rice. If your freezer doesn't get that cold, I don't know how long you need to leave it in the freezer; but, in case of doubt, you could just store it in there and take it out immediately before cooking.

If I'm in any doubt about anything I buy, it goes automatically into the freezer for a few days as soon as I get it home.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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