How to Best Store Uncooked Rice: Tips and Trips to Keep It Fresh For a Long Time

Rice is one of the most popular, loved and used foods in the world, not only for its goodness and its great versatility in the kitchen, but also because it is a food with a long shelf life, which can last for many months in your pantry. To ensure that rice remains intact for the entire period in which you do not use it, however, you must learn to store it in adequate conditions that allow the quality and organoleptic characteristics of the product to be kept intact.

Once the package is opened, rice becomes particularly sensitive to the temperature and humidity of the environment in which it is stored, which is why it requires a series of precautions that reduce exposure to humidity and pests. Here are the most effective ones for preserving rice to perfection.

What Happens if You Store Rice Poorly

Surely it has happened to you more than once to find the pantry where you keep open packets of rice, but also those of pasta or flour, infested by insects usually known as "food moths", or even worse to find insects inside the packages known as wheat weevils. This is precisely the greatest risk you run when you do not store rice and the other products mentioned properly, because if not perfectly isolated it is very likely that unwanted insects will contaminate it.

Also because, sometimes, it can happen that these insects can be in the grain silos, where they lay eggs that remain viable during all the processing phases until the final production. The open rice package, perhaps exposed to the heat and humidity typical of the kitchen environment, does not allow the definitive death of those eggs, which develop to form the moths or the weevil.

Of course, to be safe, it is better to throw away infested packages to avoid ingesting the little animals or their larvae, but even better is to learn how to avoid their formation: storing rice correctly is easy and you have many options at your disposal, and it also allows you to preserve its flavor. Rice, in fact, absorbs odors very easily and therefore an open package could impregnate the grains with the flavor of what you cook, ruining their characteristics.

How to Store Rice Properly

When you have purchased your pack of rice and have not yet used it, you can keep it in its original packaging. In fact, rice is sold vacuum-packed, so you just have to make sure that the bag does not have any damage and that the rice is well compacted inside: this means that the product is well isolated from the external environment and is not at risk.

The situation changes when you go to open the package because rice, as mentioned, is greatly affected by the environment in which it is found and the air, especially if humid and hot, can ruin it in the ways we have listed. The best way to preserve rice, therefore, is to recreate a sort of isolation by placing it inside containers that guarantee a perfectly hermetic seal, so as not to leave the product in contact with the air. In this case, remember to label the containers with the opening date and the original expiration date of the rice, in order to keep track of the freshness of the rice.

The place where you store your jars is also very important, even if they are closed. Rice must be stored in a dark place, not only because of the pest issue but also because it can degrade the quality of the rice and encourage the development of mold. Furthermore, keeping rice in a cool environment, away from heat sources such as stoves or radiators or kitchen stoves, helps to preserve its integrity.

Another useful technique for preservation is to vacuum-pack the rice, a practice possible thanks to the use of domestic vacuum bags that are now easily found on the market. In this case, remember, however, that vacuum-packing does not sterilize the food and therefore, before sealing it, remember to check that it is still in optimal conditions.

Alternatively, rice can also be frozen, an excellent way to preserve it for the long term. When frozen, especially if vacuum-packed, it can be stored for long periods without deteriorating, thanks to the low water activity in the grains which prevents the formation of harmful ice crystals. Again, remember to label it with the dates so you know when you put it away and when it should expire.