which kind of rice stores long-term the best ?

[tsx500]

i was at Costco today and they have a few types of rice for sale ... Blue Ribbon long-grain golden rice = 34c/lb. and the same brand but parboiled is 46c/lb . jasmine rice (Thailand) = 63c/lb. Which of these would store the best / for the longest time ? i thought i heard somewhere that parboiled rice would attract the fewest bugs (?) ...... thanx in advance for any advice !

[Bearack]

I think all white rice (and I could be wrong here) stores about the same due to it's lack of oils. It's when you can into brown rices where the oil content is greater that the storage life is reduced.... But I'd like to hear an alternate opinion.

[sublimepatriot1776]

Could also be the oils, but one of the reasons brown rice spoils quicker is due to the wholegrain and or bran layer of the rice. This layer or two is stripped away to make different forms of white rice. Which is why it is has less nutrients....or atleast thats what I remember from my reading about 2 years ago and Modern Marvels-Rice a month ago.

[Thesenator223]

Bugs aren't "attracted" to grains, they are usually already present in the grains in egg form.

Get white jasmine rice, put it in your freezer in a sealed container and freeze it for a week or two (this will kill off any eggs) then put it in a mylar bag lined bucket with O2 absorber and seal it up.

If you have access to it, you can "purge" or "flush" the bag with nitrogen before sealing. This should give you rice that will still be good in 20-25 years.

Brown rice spoils quickly (6 months) because of the oils going rancid

[GENT]

I store standard American long grain rice as it is the toughest grain, cheepeest, and is most forgiving when it comes to preparation.
We also use basmati at home, but we tend not to store this as it is a more delecate grain all round, nut a little variation in style and flavour would ne welcome post event I think. Basmati is my favorate rice out of the options.
My brother used to use protien shakes which came on these large screwtop plastic bottles, each one holds 4kg long grain rice, with an O2 absorber, plastic membrane ironed over the top and the lids screwed down tightly. Couldn't get mylar when I did these for various reasons, but they are doing fine. The new membranes are clear, and probably arn't impervious to osmosic action allowing O2 to slowly permeate but I opened one up after around 5 yrs and its showing no signs of oxidation or pest infiltration.

[oldparanoia]

While I agree with Thesenator223 90%, I suggest you buy regular short or long rice because they cost less, unless you have money to spare. Most people in the world do fine with the regular kind and they all store for a very long time. As others mentioned the brown rice is the one the doesn't.

[Allamakee County]

Wild rice stores well. 'Course it's not a true rice. But it's delicious.

[ANTI LIBERAL]

I've read that parboiled rice retains more nutrients so I've been stocking up. Thanks again MikeK

[Salmonsmoker]

Originally Posted by Thesenator223

Bugs aren't "attracted" to grains, they are usually already present in the grains in egg form.

Get white jasmine rice, put it in your freezer in a sealed container and freeze it for a week or two (this will kill off any eggs) then put it in a mylar bag lined bucket with O2 absorber and seal it up.

If you have access to it, you can "purge" or "flush" the bag with nitrogen before sealing. This should give you rice that will still be good in 20-25 years.

Brown rice spoils quickly (6 months) because of the oils going rancid

Dry ice also works well to purge oxygen from storage pails because it is carbondioxide - heavier than air. 1/4 lbs of dry ice is enough to purge the air from a 5 gal. pail. Place the dry ice in the bottom of the pail (we line our pails with a food-grade storage bag) , then add the rice. When the rice is in the pail, partially seal the liner bag - leave it for around 2 hours - until the liner bag stops poofing - then seal the bag and snap on the lid. The carbondioxide in the pail will kill any bugs and stop the oxygination of the pail contents.

[MikeK]

Any white rice will store well long term. I'm storing all sorts of different kinds, from sushi rice, to basmati and jasmine, etc.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Salmonsmoker

Dry ice also works well to purge oxygen from storage pails because it is carbondioxide - heavier than air. 1/4 lbs of dry ice is enough to purge the air from a 5 gal. pail. Place the dry ice in the bottom of the pail (we line our pails with a food-grade storage bag) , then add the rice. When the rice is in the pail, partially seal the liner bag - leave it for around 2 hours - until the liner bag stops poofing - then seal the bag and snap on the lid. The carbondioxide in the pail will kill any bugs and stop the oxygination of the pail contents.

Gas flushing is how they used to store foods before O2 absorbers. But it's not nearly as effective at removing O2. There is always pockets of residual O2 throughout the food. This is why they stopped using that method. There are lab tests that back this up. O2 absorbers are currently the best way to store foods long term.

Also, dry ice being as cold as it is can cause condensation in the foods.

[Daisy]

I have heard that rice does not store all that well, and that wheat is actually better, stores longer and you can do more with it and you can cook wheat similar to rice. I have not tried this yet myself.

[rugster]

Originally Posted by ANTI LIBERAL

I've read that parboiled rice retains more nutrients so I've been stocking up. Thanks again MikeK

I've heard that too So I just checked a bag of Uncle Ben's Vs. a bag of medium grain rice and the nutrition content is the same or so it says so?

FYI for you folks on the west coast the cash and carry outlet has the best price
Uncle Ben's i believe it's a 10# food service bag 9.00

50# long grain rice is 17.47


http://www.smartfoodservice.com/locations.aspx

[millertyme]

Originally Posted by GENT

... plastic membrane ironed over the top and the lids screwed down tightly... The new membranes are clear, and probably aren't impervious to osmosic action allowing O2 to slowly permeate but I opened one up after around 5 yrs and its showing no signs of oxidation or pest infiltration.

What membranes are these? Had you previously used mylar over the openings and ironed it in place?

[GENT]

Originally Posted by millertyme

What membranes are these? Had you previously used mylar over the openings and ironed it in place?

Mylar was very difficult to get over here at the time, the membranes wee tough food grade polythene. It made it easy to make a good seal. But, as I said, it probably is not impermiable to oxygen.

The best option zwould always be mylar bags sealed with O2 absorbers inside a container.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Daisy

I have heard that rice does not store all that well, and that wheat is actually better, stores longer and you can do more with it and you can cook wheat similar to rice. I have not tried this yet myself.

Rice doesn't store for a thousand years like wheat, but you can get several decades out of it properly packaged. That should be long enough. Wheat is better from a nutritional standpoint and it's extremely versatile.

But realistically, we should be storing a variety of grains, not just rice. Same with beans, or any other food we store. There are a lot of useful grains that store well. Barley, oats, corn, etc. Plus the less well known like quinoa, amaranth (easy to grow too!), etc.

[GENT]

Quinoa is awesome stuff, apparently it has complete protien or something to that effect.

[Thesenator223]

Originally Posted by Daisy

I have heard that rice does not store all that well, and that wheat is actually better, stores longer and you can do more with it and you can cook wheat similar to rice. I have not tried this yet myself.

I've been eating/rotating out rice that I stored in 1998, cooks up just fine and tastes exactly like stuff I bought a week ago. This was stored in just a clean white food grade bucket and flushed with nitrogen, no O2 absorbers, no mylar bag.

You'll get 25 yrs out of properly stored rice easy.

[PrepperGirl]

I'm all about storing quinoa in some mylar bags/buckets. Most versatile grain out there, IMO. Anyone know if it's stored in mylar with O2 absorbers in a cool dry climate what the average shelf life is?

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Thesenator223

I've been eating/rotating out rice that I stored in 1998, cooks up just fine and tastes exactly like stuff I bought a week ago. This was stored in just a clean white food grade bucket and flushed with nitrogen, no O2 absorbers, no mylar bag.

You'll get 25 yrs out of properly stored rice easy.

I'm using rice that is just about that old too. I had just stored it in buckets with O2 absorbers, no mylar. I won't do that anymore since I've learned better. But the rice stored just fine and taste as good as new rice that I've compared it with. Rice, as with most grains, just isn't that hard to store long term.