Testing 10 Yr Old Rice, by Jessie Blaine
Rice is a big component of my emergency food plans and I recently tested rice that has been stored in less-than-ideal conditions for nearly 10 years. Storing bulk foods like beans, rice and pasta are on every partisan’s list, but how many bags can you realistically store in a perfectly climate-controlled condition?
For me, it’s not very much. So, I do what I can with what I have and that means, at times, food is stored in less-than-ideal conditions. Recently, I wanted to settle my growing concerns about the way the rice was stored, and I decided to do a taste test.
The rice I tested was grown in Texas and purchased from a local Walmart around 2012. The packaging process was simple; put four cups of rice into a quart sized canning jar, drop in a small oxygen absorber, and seal the lid. Fast and easy.
However, I was running out of storage space in the house and the only place I had room left was out in the garage…not ideal, but that’s what I had and that’ where it went.
I knew those storage conditions went against everything said on the internet about ‘proper’ storage techniques. Since I was living on the hot and humid Texas Gulf, keeping this out in the garage was a concern, but so was not having any food. So, I opted to go for the gamble and store the food in these less-than-ideal conditions, with the thought that the S-would-HTF at any time and long-term storage wouldn’t actually be an issue.
But the S-never-HTF. Until it did, at least for me.
Hurricane Harvey (2017) decided to pay a visit and it ravaged the Texas coastline. My home, along with thousands of others were severely flood damaged. Many of my preparedness items were completely flooded and submerged. After the waters receded and accessing my garage, I was surprised to see that nearly all of my food preps were still sealed and appeared to have no water damage.
All of the jars were still sealed and there were no visible signs of water intrusion.
Nearly all of the mylar bags were still sealed and were holding a vacuum.
All of the sport drink and two-liter bottles were sealed and showed no visible sign of having any water inside of the bottles.
All the food storage and been touched in one way or another by the hurricane waters, yet almost none of it showed any signs of water damage.
While I was going through the rebuilding process, I rented a storage unit for everything and anything that could be salvaged – including my food jars. And basically, that’s where they sat for many years.
Fast forward to March of 2022 and after being flooded and stored in less-than-ideal conditions for nearly 10 years, it was time to test the rice.
At first glance, the rice appeared just fine. Looking closely, I could see no signs of infestation or indications of any water intrusion. Next, I removed the canning ring and started to pry open the lid and found that it was still drawn down into a vacuum and it had a good seal. After opening the lid, the rice smelled, looked, and felt just fine.
The rice appeared to be good, so I used my camping gear and cooked up ½ a cup of rice. It cooked well and tasted just fine. The rice was fluffy, cooked completely (wasn’t hard or crunchy), and it tasted just like any other long-grain, white rice!
Overall, success! Even after being submerged in hurricane waters and after being stored in less-than-ideal conditions for nearly 10 years the rice is still good. For me, this test put to rest an internal debate about the viability of storing rice in hot garages or storage units.
I hope this inspires you to keep moving forward, even if that means less than perfect conditions with less than perfect equipment.
Make do and make happen.
Jessie
Jessie Blaine is a former Marine living in refuge somewhere in the Lone Star state. He is in a perpetual state of learning, which is the second-best state to be in, with the Lone Star state being the first
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Thanks, Jess! Good “Field Report” on 10 y/o rice. If we can keep our rice eatable for the next 10 years, we’ll be over a huge hurdle. News today is telegraphing: “BUY FOOD NOW or STARVE LATER.”
Here in the vast flyover Midwest, the Storebrand COSTCO rice from LA had been going for like $9/25 lb sack. It disappeared for a couple months, but now it’s back at $10/25 lb sack and $20 for the 50 pounder.
Don’t forget to store up some sauces for the rice as well: we prefer the Kikkoman soy sauce (now $5/64 oz at COSTCO), as opposed to the more ‘watery’ and tasteless varieties from ALDI or Wallyworld.
Beter still, snag a bunch of the condensed Campbell soups, like Cream of Chicken, or even canned beef stew to toss over a hot, fluffy bed of rice. Same with the cans of white chicken breasts. If you’re lucky–use fresh-caught salmon or tune with rice. Makes the belly happy quite well. Cheap to boot and keeps.
All kinds of recipes:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/white-rice-dishes/
We have vacuum sealed rice in 1/2 gallon jars. What we have is Lundberg organic white basmati rice. I opened one not to long ago, it was sealed solid and cooked up real well. We sealed it 2008.
An add on, a vacuum sealer was the best investment that we have ever made. We started out with Food Saver, went through several over the years, we wore them out. Then discovered that their quality had diminished, and their service and support was terrible. Finally we bit the bullet and purchased a VACUPAK Elite. It was a bit spendy, but, it is virtually indestructible, and we use the shit out of it.
I have chamber vacuumed hundreds of pounds of rice and various beans over the last ten years. Worried, but not scared.
This is excellent, especially that MSR Whisperlite stove. Mine is equally as beat up after 30 years but when you need a naptha based blowtorch to cook for a group, it sure rises to the occasion. Definitely invest in the jet for kerosene/diesel since all farmers around the world have that fuel on hand.
I stored some white rice, yellow split peas, powdered milk, and mashed potato flakes in unsealed old cookie tins in 1986. All were stored in a shed without climate control in a southern MN climate. No oxygen absorbers, no mylar bags, no vacuum. Only the split peas were in a zip-lock bag. It gets above 100F and really humid in those valleys in summer and -30F in winter. I ate the rice and potato flakes after they had been stored for 30 years. The cookie tins were starting to get pretty rusty. The rice was somewhat yellow in color, but tasted fine. The potatoes were as good as new. The powdered milk was a really foul smelling black tar at the 30 year mark. I could have stuffed that tin with dead cats and wouldn’t expect it to still stink after 30 years. Go figure.
I still have the split peas. They will be 36 years old this fall. They still look good. I don’t have a good recipe that uses them, so I haven’t eaten them yet.
Good info. Great to know! 2 things come to mind: I freeze my rice for two weeks to kill any critters or eggs hatching. The other is I put food grade diatomaceous earth, say a cup, in 5 gal bags/ buckets. Just in case something survived the freezing.
I store raisins in vacuum packed glass mason jars in 2007. I finally got around to eating them last year. They looked like fresh raisins still. That plump shiny look. They were stored in a shed that averaged northwest Montana temperatures all year long. I have also eaten cans of tuna fish 13 years old. It taste slightly metallic but I never got sick . Also eaten 17 year old salsa with no problems