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

[Saginaw79]

all rice comes with infestation from where its harvested and wont harm you, that said you can freeze the rice, or store in nitrogen etc to make sure they don't hatch

[RiggerGod]

When I lived down south I NEVER really had good luck w/ Publix. I've never been sold as many expired products as I have when I shopped there. So maybe consider the source.
That said we buy and store only basmati long grain (as that is pretty much the only type of white rice we eat) We usually get the better brands from our local Indian market or when I'n a place with a lack of Indian markets we'll get it from CostCo.
A five pound bag usually lasts about a year or so and we've never stored it in anything more than the plastic liner (inside the burlap bag the rice comes in) w/ a rubber band. And 4 years of that was in the sub-tropics!

My long-term storage dry goods (rice, beans, wheat, sugar, salt, etc.) are in five gallon buckets with a mylar liner, heat sealed, with nitrogen, and a couple of O2 absorbers. So far so good.

[Shorts]

When I lived down south I NEVER really had good luck w/ Publix. I've never been sold as many expired products as I have when I shopped there. So maybe consider the source.
That said we buy and store only basmati long grain (as that is pretty much the only type of white rice we eat) We usually get the better brands from our local Indian market or when I'n a place with a lack of Indian markets we'll get it from CostCo.
A five pound bag usually lasts about a year or so and we've never stored it in anything more than the plastic liner (inside the burlap bag the rice comes in) w/ a rubber band. And 4 years of that was in the sub-tropics!

My long-term storage dry goods (rice, beans, wheat, sugar, salt, etc.) are in five gallon buckets with a mylar liner, heat sealed, with nitrogen, and a couple of O2 absorbers. So far so good.

I'm not real impressed with them either. We've recently discussed joining Costco again, especially for some bulk items. We were spoiled with our rice selection when we lived in Japan. Since then, we eat only short grain and our Publix just doesn't have it. I'm considering ordering online to take care of that, especially after this weevil episode.

I need to get our buckets and bags together as well.

[Shao]

I've been freezing my rice since 1993. Every Vietnamese family I've met keeps their rice in the garage and when they make a pot, they simply wash the rice repeatedly in cold water to remove the bugs. Gross, I know - but apparently it's what they did in the motherland. Weevils eggs lie dormant in many grains. Breakfast serial is a major offender. I generally freeze anything that may contain weevil eggs for 48-72 hours before putting it in the pantry. Good rule of thumb.