Old rice- can I use it

I’d chuck it. ‘Use by’ dates are sometimes to do with quality, not safety.

I appreciate it feels wasteful, but nobody need know! (Apart from Gransnet! )

Will be fine, but NEVER reheat cooked rice. It’s quite easy to poison yourself. Take it from one who knows.

Ex caterer here, I’d definitely not use it, rice is a contrary beast and the cause of many a food poisoning, use it in a craft session to make bean bags or hacky sacks or to weight a doorstop

Jane I ve been reheating cooked rice as long as I ve been cooking I ve lived in W Indian Middle Eastern and Far Eastern cultures and never ever known anyone who doesn’t
I know it’s advised against here but I can only speak as it is for me

Great post! Old rice can still be incredibly useful in many recipes, especially for fried rice or patties where slightly drier grains work best. At Shafi Gluco Chem, we’re all about smart kitchen swaps — if you're cooking with rice and need a natural sweetener, consider using a substitute for rice syrup like our organic brown rice syrup. It’s a clean, gluten-free option that works well in a variety of dishes!https://glucochem.com/korean-certified-rice-syrup-substitutes-exploring-traditional-and-modern-sweeteners-in-asian-cuisine/

Reported

The rice is another year older now...

crazyH

I was about to throw away a packet of rice that was infested with weevils. My visiting friend suggested washing it … the weevils would rise to the top. Then throw away the water with the weevils and you’re good to go.

When I lived in a very hot climate, weevils used to get in so many things - Weetabix were known as Weevilbrix,
I used to keep any bag of flour in the freezer, and sieve the dead little buggers out before using.

Tanjamaltija

Brown rice will go rancid because of the oils in it. White rice will taste a tad weird because the lipids will oxidize, and the texture will be mushy. Seriously, though, rice is not that expensive. So why risk it?

Just what I think too.
And never ever re-heat cooked rice.

😆 another zombie thread.

Luckygirl3

Dry rice out of date is fine: cooked rice is dodgy and should be eaten up asap.

All over SE Asia, and probably elsewhere, rice is cooked in advance for fried rice dishes later.
A hotel waitress in Indonesia told us that early every morning she advance-cooked 1.5 kg of rice for her (presumably extended) family’s meals for the rest of the day.

I'd chuck it. Why risk cooking with other good ingredients only for the finished result to taste stale.

I have made a couple of risottos lately - the first was made with rice from a packet that had been open for a long time - past the 'use by' date anyway. The second was from a new packet. Although the first one was perfectly ok the rice took a long time to absorb the butter which is what you do in the first stage and then a long time to cook. The second took hardly any time in the first stage and cooked a bit quicker after that. So I would probably say old rice is safe but loses it's quality.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

If you haven't chucked it, and are concerned about eating it, here is an option you can consider. (Yes, I did this myself once, in primary school, but I used dried beans. Some students did use rice, though.)

Take an old necktie and sew the narrow end closed. Pour the rice into the necktie until it's full. Sew the wide end closed. On the wide end, put a couple of googly plastic eyes and a small piece of felt for a tongue. You now have a lovely snake that can be placed against the bottom of a door to keep out drafts

agnurse
Read the date of the OP.

crazyH

I was about to throw away a packet of rice that was infested with weevils. My visiting friend suggested washing it … the weevils would rise to the top. Then throw away the water with the weevils and you’re good to go.

Why on earth would anyone do that unless utterly indigent or facing starvation .
Even reading it made me feel a bit uneasy.

White rice I ditch after 2 years. Brown rice I chuck out after 6 months. Cooked rice goes in the bin - I think reheating it is risky. It is pretty cheap after all.