Insects in bags of rice

[Burma Bill]

56 minutes ago, TheFishman1 said:

must be a very boring day

Not at all, especially if you entertain guests/customers and do not want "bugs" in your rice. I find this interesting compared to the regular boring news about entertainment hours, marijuana, Covid in Thailand and road accidents!

Edited December 12, 2022 by Burma Bill
additional information

[Bigz]

Throw it in the the bin. Buy a new bag of rice.

[Lacessit]

Stop eating rice if you are overweight, high carbohydrate and causes constipation. It's why many village Thais drink laxative teas.

 

A sieve that can separate the rice from the insects may be the simplest solution, if the sizes are different.

[MJCM]

41 minutes ago, Bigz said:

Throw it in the the bin. Buy a new bag of rice.

Have a look at the thread and not only the 1st post, some good options have emerged already and as I understand it's still perfectly good rice to eat.

 

1- Wash/rinse it often so the insects wash away with the water.

2- Put the rice out in the sun (so the insects leave)

 

I have done option 2 and it seems to be working quite well, still seeing a couple (but those will wash out)

Edited December 12, 2022 by MJCM
additional info

[MJCM]

35 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Stop eating rice if you are overweight, high carbohydrate and causes constipation. It's why many village Thais drink laxative teas.

Personally no problems with overweight / constipation so I am still keep eating rice 

 

37 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

A sieve that can separate the rice from the insects may be the simplest solution, if the sizes are different.

Putting it out in the SUN and then washing / rinsing it often seems to be the trick.

[rwill]

3 hours ago, MJCM said:

Thx appreciated. I will look better next time, but this was the first time I needed to buy rice as we normally get the white rice from the BIL.

When you buy it there may not be any bugs in it that you can see.  Most of the time they have eggs in there that you don't see and they hatch later at home.

[rwill]

Vacuum sealing the rice may work too.

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, placeholder said:

That's my understanding too. To kill the weevils via freezing can take a fair amount of time depending on the temperature of your freezer. I looked that up a long time ago and don't recall the numbers.

I do seem to recall that it can take up to 5 days depending on temperature.

[MJCM]

6 minutes ago, rwill said:

When you buy it there may not be any bugs in it that you can see.  Most of the time they have eggs in there that you don't see and they hatch later at home.

What I now understand yes, but if I can already see them in the sealed BAG I would prefer to buy one that doesn't have them. I must say this is of course NOT Fool Proof.

[Peterphuket]

4 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

They are grain weevils.  They are actually quite safe to eat.  

 

They eat the rice and so lower its nutritional quality though. 

 

You can't get rid of them if they are already in the rice.  That would take hours of picking through the rice..

 

I suppose you could pick them out of the a portion of rice that you were washing before cooking as they will float to the top. 

 

Persoly I would say iys best to dispose of the rice and buy a fresh bag.  It's not like is very expensive.  

 

Also you don't want some to get out and set up home in your kitchen.... Where they will get into any new rice you buy unless its kept in air tight containers. 

Yes, I remember when I has a GF from Isarn, her mother has rice fields so we got a big bag with us when I stay in Phuket.

After a few weeks the small bugs become visible in the rice grain, well that's really unacceptable for a city dweller, one by one I tried to thake them out, on the balcony in the sun.

After about a few hours I stopped and threw the whole bag in the bin.

And about the gf, I don't have that anymore too.

And Phuket I also left more than 10 years ago, much too busy.

[tandor]

2 hours ago, MJCM said:

Thanks, yes already mentioned elsewhere, but not so elaborate as your post especially the kill fungi or mold spores bit

 

 

Frankly, for a 1kg bag, which if inspected would be declared unfit for human consumption, would only be fit for animal feed. You have the issue of insects secreting faeces and other hormones, plus eggs, which on entering a humans; digestive tract could cause massive infections unless correctly identified prior. So, where other posters have said..''boil 'em up..extra protein" etc...is just gung-ho talk and irresponsible. IMHO.

[sniggie]

The last two 2kg bags that I have bought from Lotus have had weevils in. The bags are sealed so they must have been introduced when packed. I guess that even big suppliers can't get rid of them. Some good tips in this thread, though. Thanks. 

[MJCM]

18 minutes ago, tandor said:

So, where other posters have said..''boil 'em up..extra protein" etc...is just gung-ho talk and irresponsible. IMHO.

I tend to agree, but AFAIK (now) a lot of the rice we (all) consume has already a lot of those insects in them. And I have never been sick eating plain cooked rice.

 

The only thing is of course to cook the rice and not eat it raw.

 

I will of course try to remove (and I think already succeeded) to remove the plainly visible ones. (Also found a very small black stone in the bought rice when washing it (or maybe it was something else ???? )

Edited December 12, 2022 by MJCM
Added (all)

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, MJCM said:

Personally no problems with overweight / constipation so I am still keep eating rice

Rice is excellent, don't believe what he says, he's carb phobic.

 

I've bought 2 bags from Big C recently with weevils in.  I now only buy vacuum sealed bags and no weevils so far 

[digger70]

Insects in bags of rice

 

That's ok ,It just means that there's no insecticide put on the rice .

Just wash the rice get rid of most of them and cook the rice ,no probs.

 

[jak2002003]

52 minutes ago, tandor said:

Frankly, for a 1kg bag, which if inspected would be declared unfit for human consumption, would only be fit for animal feed. You have the issue of insects secreting faeces and other hormones, plus eggs, which on entering a humans; digestive tract could cause massive infections unless correctly identified prior. So, where other posters have said..''boil 'em up..extra protein" etc...is just gung-ho talk and irresponsible. IMHO.

What?  They are safe to eat. So are their eggs. They are only eating rice, and so their microscopic  poops will just be the indigestible parts of the rice grains that you would eat anyway.  Jeez. 

 

I take it you don't like eating the fried bugs and insects here... Lol. 

 

I really dont know how you think eating a few tiny rice beetles will give your digestional tract 'massive infections'! 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by jak2002003

[JimmyJ]

Disgusting to keep/eat it.

 

1) Return to store,

 

or else

 

2) Dispose of it.

 

 

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

They are grain weevils.  They are actually quite safe to eat.  

 

They eat the rice and so lower its nutritional quality though. 

 

You can't get rid of them if they are already in the rice.  That would take hours of picking through the rice..

 

I suppose you could pick them out of the a portion of rice that you were washing before cooking as they will float to the top. 

 

Persoly I would say iys best to dispose of the rice and buy a fresh bag.  It's not like is very expensive.  

 

Also you don't want some to get out and set up home in your kitchen.... Where they will get into any new rice you buy unless its kept in air tight containers. 

Buy rice only in plastic bags, poke the bag in many places and see is any incects appear.

My son and his wife do that with every bag they buy, at Makro. Some bags pass the test some don't. 

[couchpotato]

28 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Buy rice only in plastic bags, poke the bag in many places and see is any incects appear.

My son and his wife do that with every bag they buy, at Makro. Some bags pass the test some don't. 

Now I know why a lot of plastic bags of rice at Makro have holes in them...thought it was the shelve stocking crew, but no, its your wife and son that do this. Amazing what you find out on this forum.

 

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, couchpotato said:

Now I know why a lot of plastic bags of rice at Makro have holes in them...thought it was the shelve stocking crew, but no, its your wife and son that do this. Amazing what you find out on this forum.

 

I said poke the bag (to move the rice around inside the bag to see if any insects appear, inside the bag).

 

I didn't say they break the bags, they don't and they wouldn't, that's not their intent anyway.

[MartinL]

Mrs. L. always puts a few stainless steel spoons into a bowl of infested uncooked dry rice. The bugs certainly leave pretty quickly, I've watched them running. Don't know why it seems to work or whether they'd bug (ger) off quickly from an open bowl anyway, without the spoons. But it certainly seems to do the trick. Maybe I'll do a controlled test one day if there's nothing else to do.

Edited December 12, 2022 by MartinL

[Liverpool Lou]

8 hours ago, MJCM said:

Good idea. How long do you leave them in the freezer?

 

Until the rice is frozen would be favourite.    But, as a few have already posted, that's a complete waste of time, they float out when the rice is washed.

[Liverpool Lou]

8 hours ago, jvs said:

You can also place it on a large plate and place it in the sun,the insects will leave.

...or rinse the rice, takes 30 seconds and they're gone.

[thailand49]

Happens often all my wife does is take the rice lay it out in the sun come back gone put rice back in container.

Never had a problem I'm still alive and kicking. 

[Liverpool Lou]

8 hours ago, MJCM said:

8 hours ago, Celsius said:

Return it for a full refund ????

Read the OP please, bag is already opened

I returned an opened bag of flour containing the same insects to Tops, got a refund immediately, no arguments or discussions.

[Liverpool Lou]

7 hours ago, placeholder said:

What about their eggs? 

Fry them. 

You really think that the eggs of an insect about a millimetre long could...

(a) be visible in order to do anything about them,

(b) could do anything apart from provide extra protein or

(c) wouldn't wash away with a rinse?

[Liverpool Lou]

.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Liverpool Lou

[placeholder]

1 minute ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Fry them. 

You really think that the eggs of an insect about a millimetre long could...

(a) be visible in order to do anything about them,

(b) could do anything apart from provide extra protein or

(c) wouldn't wash away with a rinse?

It's up to MJCM whether he wants to eat rice with weevil eggs in it or not. And if the eggs are laid in the rice grains they might not wash out.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 minutes ago, placeholder said:

It's up to MJCM whether he wants to eat rice with weevil eggs in it or not. And if the eggs are laid in the rice grains they might not wash out.

You're right, but what harm could a 0.1mm egg do and how would anyone ever know if they were eating them?   Who examines their rice grains with a loupe before cooking it?

[placeholder]

16 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

You're right, but what harm could a 0.1mm egg do and how would anyone ever know if they were eating them?   Who examines their rice grains with a loupe before cooking it?

I almost can't believe that I am actually engaged in a discussion about the possible presence of weevil eggs in rice and the someone's possible disinclination to eat them.