Plastic rice from China has arrived in Russian stores. Deadly cereal. Why Rospotrebnadzor is looking for “plastic” rice in Russian regions How to distinguish fake rice from China

In recent years, there have been increasing reports that China is supplying adulterated rice to world markets. The production technology of this “product” is extremely simple. “Craftsmen” grind natural rice, turning it into flour, then mix it with powdered filler and form rice grains again. And it’s also good if, for example, starch is used as a filler, although this is a shame - I want to eat rice in my roll, not paste. Some counterfeiters even add plastic, for example, melamine, to fake rice.

Can you imagine what this rice will taste like? Of course, if you serve such a rice dish with some oriental sauce with a bunch of seasonings, you won’t notice the difference. This is apparently what producers of fake rice are counting on. And there is no need to talk about the usefulness of this “cereal” - there is no benefit at all, only harm.

How to spot a fake

If we lived in a country with strict food controls and zero corruption, the best way to spot counterfeit would be to not buy Chinese rice at all. If you see hieroglyphs on the pack, don’t take it. However, due to the specifics of the trading business, this recommendation turns out to be useless.

The fact is that fake rice does not come to us in packs. It is brought in bags on trains and ships, and somewhere in the Petushinsky district of the Moscow region it is packaged in packs with native Russian labels on the same packaging line along with tea, coffee and peas.

Therefore, an effective method for detecting counterfeit is direct inspection of already purchased rice cereal. You can check the purchased rice for “honesty” using the following methods.

Crush the grains

When crushed, real rice becomes a snow-white powder without additional inclusions. Any other shade may indicate the presence of plastic flour. In most cases, adulterated rice produces yellowish flour.

Light the grains

Place a few beans in a spoon and set them on fire. Natural rice does not ignite, but fake rice will burn, as they say, for your dear soul. And when starchy rice burns, it also crackles merrily. By the way - IMPORTANT! - warn your family that you are conducting an experiment with rice, so that when they see how you ignite something white in a spoon with a lighter, they don’t think anything criminal!

Drown the grains

A real grain of rice will sink in water. The fake one, on the contrary, floats to the top and does not sink to the bottom of the pan, even during cooking. It is better to throw away such rice and send “rays of goodness” towards Chinese producers.

So far, only white rice (polished and steamed) has been learned to counterfeit. And if you have vague doubts when buying rice, give preference to brown or red varieties of rice. In addition, these brutal relatives of white refined rice have higher nutritional value.

For those who are not in the know, here is the news from the Korean Times. It turns out that they are made in China. plastic rice, which is supplied in large quantities abroad.

This rice is not entirely synthetic. It is based on potato starch, to which plastic is added so that it holds the desired shape. Eating a portion of this rice is equivalent to eating a plastic bag. Therefore, before eating rice, it is advisable to check it. Perhaps such a miracle of the world is already being produced here. We have prepared several tests to help you determine the quality of rice.

Rice Quality Tests

(1) Water test
Add a large tablespoon of rice to a bowl of cold water and stir vigorously. If the rice settles to the bottom after a while, everything is fine. If the grains float on the surface, be careful!

(2) Fire test
Light the rice with a match. The fake one will immediately catch fire and smell like burnt plastic!

Illustration copyright YouTube Image caption On the Internet you can find many descriptions of “plastic rice”, which is supposedly mixed with the real thing.

Stories about how “plastic rice” is being sold in Africa continue to actively circulate on social networks, and numerous videos are cited as arguments in which balls allegedly molded from such rice bounce like rubber.

Over the past few weeks, these rumors have become so popular in Senegal, Gambia and Ghana that the Ghana Food and Drug Administration has decided to conduct its own investigation.

Agency staff invited consumers and traders to send them samples of suspicious rice, and after analysis they came to the conclusion that, at least in the Ghanaian market, there is no “plastic rice”.

The fake is more expensive than the original

Rumors that unscrupulous traders are mixing “plastic rice” into real rice began on Chinese social networks back in 2010.

The reason was a series of scandals with the so-called “fake rice”, which actually took place, but they were not talking about replacing the real product with plastic.

In one case, the company passed off another variety, less prestigious, but quite edible, as premium Wuchan rice.

Then, in 2011, there was a rumor that they had now learned how to make rice from potato starch with the addition of industrial plastic.

This rumor was allegedly confirmed by the words of an official of the Chinese restaurant industry, who said that eating three bowls of “plastic rice” is like eating a snack from a plastic bag.

Illustration copyright YouTube Image caption 'Plastic rice' rumors fueled by videos of rice balls bouncing like rubber

However, there were also three confirmed cases where large quantities of plastic granules were passed off as rice. This “plastic rice” is specially produced as a container filler in order to preserve the contents of containers during transportation. However, these pellets will almost always cost more to produce than real rice.

The story of “fake rice” hit African social networks in 2016, when Nigerian customs confiscated 2.5 tons of rice. At first, officials said that the rice was plastic, but later, when the country's health minister said that there was no confirmation of these statements, customs backed down. It turned out that there was actually something wrong with this rice: it contained an increased concentration of bacteria.

Illustration copyright YouTube Image caption Rumors about fake rice are especially common in West African countries that rely on imports of this product.

Jumping rice

Yet rumors about the existence of “plastic rice” continued to circulate, fueled by videos of rice balls that bounced like rubber balls. Some videos even allegedly showed how such rice was produced in factories.

According to Alexander Waugh, director of the UK-based Rice Association, such videos may well be real, but not because the rice is made of plastic. It's just that when cooked in a certain way, rice balls can actually jump.

“Rice by nature is made up of carbohydrates and proteins,” explains Waugh, “so something similar can happen to it.”

In turn, Alexandre Capron, an employee of the France 24 television channel, believes that distrust of imported goods and protectionism may be behind the rumors.

Capron spent a lot of time debunking the myth of “plastic rice.” The journalist claims that some people are deliberately spreading fake videos to encourage consumers to buy more local rice.

“Such rumors are more common in countries that depend on rice imports, such as Ivory Coast or Senegal,” says Capron. “These rumors are so persistent that the authorities are forced to make official statements on this matter that “plastic rice” does not exist.”

But BBC Focus on Africa editor Hassan Aruni, who has also studied the plastic rice issue, is not convinced that West Africans are deliberately targeting rice-exporting countries such as China for criticism. At the same time, Aruni is convinced that the authorities in West African countries are doing exactly the right thing by debunking myths about “fake rice.”

“I think this is the best way to demonstrate to the public that these are false rumors,” he believes. “I think it should convince people that this is fake news and just someone misbehaving on the Internet.”

For those who are not in the know, here is the news from the Korean Times. It turns out that plastic rice is produced in China, which is shipped abroad in large quantities.

Rice Quality Tests

Water test

Add a large tablespoon of rice to a bowl of cold water and stir vigorously. If the rice settles to the bottom after a while, everything is fine. If the grains float on the surface, be careful!

Fire test

Light the rice with a match. The fake one will immediately catch fire and smell like burnt plastic!

Mortar test

Grinding a few grains in a mortar turns real rice into white flour. The artificial rice will turn out to be a slightly yellowish mass.

Mold test

If you want to know if your cooked rice is safe, place some in an airtight container in a warm place. After a few days, mold will appear on real rice. But fake rice will be as fresh as fresh.

Plastic rice, news newspapers and television are full of such headlines. The worst thing is that this is true. The Chinese have become completely lazy. Instead of growing rice in the fields, they learned to fake it. Yes, it would be fine if such rice were sold in China, but it is successfully sold to Russia. In China, fake rice is sold with ingredients labeled. Such rice enters the territory of the Russian Federation with documentation indicating the content of impurities of plastic, starch, and potatoes. Unscrupulous “repackers” of products buy fake rice.

What happens is that low-quality rice is simply packaged in packaging that doesn’t have a word about plastic, potatoes, or starch. This is how plastic rice from China ends up on shelves.

Plastic rice how to distinguish

As you already understand, the authenticity of rice cannot be determined by the packaging. Let's figure out how to buy real rice:

Plastic rice true or false

Rumor has it that these are stories and there is no fake rice. We invite you to watch the video and find out whether this is true or a myth.

The problem is not only in China and Russia, fake rice has spread all over planet Earth. Be vigilant - check what you eat.

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