Bugs in Rice

[Shorts]

Friday night I opened our pantry and grabbed the tupperware container of white rice to scoop some and make a serving. I noticed about 5 weevils sitting on top of the rice I sifted the container and found more. My pantry is clear and my conclusion is the bugs rather the egg were in the bag of rice we purchased in the past week or two. Then the bugs hatched in the container where I found them. This is the first time it has ever happened.

Did some googling and found out weevils in rice aren't uncommon. However it's the first time in my three decades of life on Earth to see it in my pantry. I've seen weevils sprout in birdseed that's kept too long. Gross. Never figured my rice would be subject. But it got me to thinking about this forum and emergency preparation. Lots of folks use beans and rice as their base of food supply. This is our intention too. But now I'm wondering if we need to prep our rice somehow before it goes into storage.

So I want to ask, do you do anything special with your rice to ensure it doesn't have bug eggs? Have you ever found weevils in your rice? Is it something to worry about? Particularly in large quantities being stored in 5gal containers for emergency use?

While offhand comments like "they're just extra protein" is a way to laugh it off I'm not thrilled about the idea of bugs contaminating a food supply.

We shop at Publix, a big grocery store chain in S.FL and buy name brands off the shelf. While I joke the drivers are very third world, I had no idea my rice would be too.

[K.L. Davis]

http://lifehacker.com/5852404/freeze...-avoid-weevils

[Shorts]

Perfect, thanks, Easy enough to do that before storing.

[cdb]

Freezing is effective. We've processed and stored wheat berries that had weevils. 2 full days in the deep freezer after sealing and after two years we've not had a single infected bag.

[CLHC]

Did a search, but rice in itself can be stored in the freezer or refrigerator for an extended amount of time. Is that correct?

[K.L. Davis]

There are a couple of old threads here about this... here is a start - https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...on-Buying-Food

[Backfire]

Price of meat going up, we will all be eating bugs anyways. Ignore them

[gamboolman]

Shorts,
We lived in Africa working the Oilfield for near to 20 year. We ate a lot of Rice that was bought in the Markets.
Wash the Rice in a pot and the bugs will float to the top.
It may take several rinses before you get them all.
Now that I am retired and back home to Texas, we still wash the Rice we get here. We still get some bugs but not like in Africa....

[utahjeepr]

Wow, folks are really digging into the thread closet.

So we buy rice (etc.) in big bags. I put it in clean 2L soda bottles gassed with nitrogen or argon. Store it away.

Now, I have these gasses on hand anyway for TIG welding and tuning shocks. I wouldn't buy the bottle and a regulator just for this. So freezing sounds like a good option for most. That or washing, or just not looking too close.

[sandsunsurf]

After reading Utahjeeper’s post, I wonder if it would work and be useful to put rice in a sodastream bottle and charge with CO2 and store.. I might try it. Not cheap but we have at least six extra bottles and rarely use them.