How to be sure you're not eating plastic rice

So, last night after mum came back from work, I was going to heat up some of the Ogbono soup stored in the freezer the night before.

It wasn't melting on time and then I decided to use a knife to attempt to slice the portion into two, since she had no plan to finish the one-litre bowl of soup that night.

In the process, the plastic bowl cracked. I successfully split it the soup and noticed she went back to double check that no piece of the plastic was left within the half piece that was to be heated.

After confirming there was none, she then began to talk about dangers of consuming plastic.

The discussion went in the direction of plastic rice which many people have said is becoming common in the Nigerian food market, from China.

According to media reports, plastic rice is not only sold in Africa but in Europe and Indonesia.

Plastic rice is said to be made of synthetic resin and potatoes as well as toxins which can be responsible for causing damages to the digestive system.

So how do you know real rice from the synthetic one, since not everyone may be able to avoid buying it from the stores?

I decided to do some research and share with you.

Here you go:

1. Burn the raw rice: A few grains of rice on your ignited burner will give off odour. Plastic rice will smell like plastic. I tested this at home and our rice smelt like roasted yam.

2. Notice the form after cooking. Plastic rice will retain the shape or form it was in, before being boiled. It hardly ever breaks even when cooked till very sofcom


3. Take a glass of water and drop some rice in the glass. Stir it and if the rice is fake, the fake one will float to the top.

4. Another method of testing, is to take the boiled rice in one bottle then leave it for about 2-3 days. If rice has plastic then it will not show any signs of fungus; it will remain as it is. This is because plastic is not affected by temperature or various seasons. Plastic remains the same.

5. Another possible way is to take some rice and drop into very hot oil. The oil temperature should be about 200°c. The fake rice or plastic rice will be bottom of the bowl.

6. You can also identify fake rice while the rice is boiling. Observe the rice during boiling time, if there is plastic in it,  thick layers will form at the top of the pan.

Image Credit: Teletica.com

Source: alhealthworks.com, Quota.com

Have you tried it? Did anyone realise their rice was plastic?