Buying suitable and high-quality rice

The importance of rice as a strategic and widely consumed food product in Iran is obvious to everyone. Rice is divided into several groups based on size and appearance. This diversity in types of rice, as well as the popularity of this product in the food basket of the general public, has caused some profit-seeking people to mix high-quality rice varieties with lower-quality ones with various physical defects so as to gain economic benefit. Therefore, awareness of the frauds in the rice industry and choosing it consciously for daily use is important, both from maintaining health to the economic considerations.

Getting to know the types of frauds in the rice industry

Mixing based on cultivar type

Types of mixing: Don't buy mixed or so-called prepared rice at the price of high-quality rice!

The most important example of such frauds is the mixing of different varieties of rice. Since the demand of consumers is to buy high-quality rice with high cooking quality, which of course has a higher price, profit seekers mix this rice with varieties having similar appearance but with a lower price and quality. For example, the high-yielding Khazarian rice is mixed with Tarem rice, which is a very popular local rice. The seller offers high-yielding Neda rice instead of Tarem, and because the color of Neda rice is transparent white and somewhat glassy, but the color of Tarem white varieties tends to creamy, the said seller claims that it is white and transparent because it stays longer in the bleaching machine. This is while the inside and outside color of the rice are the same.

Adding broken rice

In some cases, half-grain rice that is the result of break of the damaged rice or the sifting process is added to healthy rice. As a result, the fixed price would decrease and so would the uniformity of the cooking quality drastically as well.

Creating an aromatic smell

Sometimes, in order to cover the stale smell or create a fragrance in mixed rice, some quality rice is floured and the resulting powder is added to the rice and stirred. The rice here, i.e.  the resulting mixture would be having a thin powder sited on its grains, creating a good aroma. But this fragrance mostly would disappear after washing or basting the rice. In some cases, the seller gives Hashemi rice instead of Domsiyah rice to the buyer, and the buyer does not notice because Hashemi rice has the same aroma as Domsiyah, but less than that, and the buyer mistakenly accepts it as Domsiyah rice.

Mixing in warehouses

A different type of mixing also happens in warehouses at the stage of packing and sacking in such a way that a tube is placed in the middle of the sack and low quality cheap rice is poured into the middle of sack, and then the surrounding, bottom and upper areas is covered by pouring high quality expensive rice.

How to identify high-quality rice from mixed and low-quality rice

First, thoroughly mix the rice that you intend to buy so that in case there is another type of rice in the container, it is combined with the rice of other parts of the sack and is present in the sample you are going to take. Next, take a handful of rice and place it between your palms, then carefully examine and smell it. The rice must be free of any living pests, old smell, or unusual smell. Rice should be free of any pests and live larvae that can be seen with the naked eye, and the remains of pests in first-class quality rice are very few, which, if present, can indicate the lack of proper storage of rice or improper processing. In aromatic rice varieties, you should smell the smell of the desired variety according to the type of rice variety.

Measure the desired rice smell intensity according to the type of rice you want to buy and what the seller claims. Then spread the rice on a clean, flat, white surface like a white sheet of paper, in front of enough light, preferably sunlight. The purchased rice should be uniform in terms of grain length, grain width, color, turbidity or transparency, etc. So look at them using a magnifying glass if possible. Rice with the same appearance and identical length to width ratio can belong to the same variety (type) of rice. After separating the grains according to the size, separate the broken rice grains from the healthy ones. At this stage, we deal with the rice that has cracks or band structure. Such cracks can be recognized in front of enough light.

These grains cause unfavorable quality in cooking. So, the lower their percentage in the sample, the better your rice will be. If in terms of any of the considered items, especially in appearance and size of the rice grains, there was a significant difference among the grains, you can say the rice under investigation is not of the same shape and is a mix of several varieties.

By knowing these things, you can compare the proximity of the declared price with the actual price. Also, the presence of bran residue on the rice (red streaks on rice grain) and signs of activity of pests or microorganisms (colored spots, seeds with unusual color, etc.) all will deteriorate the quality of rice.