Week 6 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Week 6 $10 Challenge:
5 kg rice

Week 6 $20 Challenge:
10 kg rice

There are three main types of rice: Long grain (such as Jasmine and Basmati), Medium Grain (Calrose and Arborio) and Short Grain (Japanese and Pearl).

For long term storage, you want to store the white rice varieties. Brown rice has a shorter shelf life and will go rancid, but can successfully be stored for 1-2 years.

If stored properly, white rice can be stored for up to 30 years or more!

To see a Brown Rice - v - White Rice comparison, click here: http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/brown-rice-vs-white-rice-a-comparison.html


Storing Rice:


There are a few different ways of storing rice for your food storage;

- Keep it in its original packaging. This will work for shorter term storage. If it is good quality rice, you shouldn't get weevils inside the packet.

- In the freezer. You can store rice in the freezer long term. Not only does this method kill any residing bugs, but it keeps your rice fresher for longer. The downside, as I discovered, is if you have a power failure. We stored ours in bags under our frozen meat in our chest freezer. After a 5 day blackout we realised that our bags of rice had become brittle (due to freezing), and the juice from the meat managed to get through all 50 kilos of rice. :( Now I know that you need to ensure your rice is packaged properly when storing in the freezer.

- In PET containers. Rice will last around 5 years stored this way. See my post on http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com/2011/01/pete-rice-storage.html for how to store it properly.

- In Mylar bags (foil pouches). Stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then in plastic tubs, your rice can last 30 years or more if the temperature is kept constant.

- In food grade plastic tubs. There are some videos on the Internet showing people storing their food in big buckets/food grade tubs. You need to line the tub with heavy duty plastic. Some add dry ice to remove the oxygen from the tub, and seal correctly (whichever method you choose to use to remove the oxygen so nasties don't survive).

I tend to store different types of rice: Jasmine, Basmati and Calrose for variety reasons. Rice pudding is a great food storage recipe for using up your short grain rice, milk powder and sugar. Long grain rice can be cooked and mixed with tinned lentils, tinned corn, soy sauce etc for an easy food storage meal.

Don't forget that in order to cook rice, you will need to store extra water - for water storage purposes.