Crawling Rice

[ozchick]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

[Splatted]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

Sounds gross.

Did a bit of googling. Weevils can still appear, depending on the method of treatment of rice..

http://www.hannafords.com/disease.php?id=26

Granary weevil (Sitophilus granarius)

Adults are dark brown and range from 2.0-3.5 mm in length. They are easily distinguishable from the borers and beetles by their long snout, characteristic of the true weevils.

Females produce from 200-300 eggs in their 2-3 month lifespan. Adults cannot fly and feign death if disturbed. Eggs are deposited in whole kernels of grain; emerging larvae feed on whole grain.

Adults feed in and on whole and broken grain.

Rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae)

As for the granary weevil, although distinguished by the four orange-reddish patches on its body.

Control of these insects by seed treatments is reliant on either the adults, in the case of cypermethrin, or larvae, when triflumuron is used, feeding on the treated grain and hence the insecticide. When feeding on treated grain, insecticide is ingested and the insect is killed. Eggs and larvae feeding exclusively within the seed are not controlled by this method, as there is no intake of chemical. However, when they emerge, insecticide is ingested from the surface of the seed and control is achieved.

Only the larval stages of the moths consume grain. Therefore, adult moths may be present in treated grain, which is protected from larval damage by the insecticide. Further, the life cycle of the insect is interrupted and multiplication does not occur, as all larvae are killed by the protectant.

When you read further on, the website mentions other methods of controlling infestation at the silo level such as "Controlled atmosphere such as carbon dioxide in a gas-tight silo".

I get the feeling that some of these poorer Asian countries probably wont use or even be able to afford as stringent control methods as this.

[x9200]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

Yes, weevils. Not necessarily from rice you have just bough. We had once really huge problem with them here. They can eat through a normal plastic bag so we have infested our whole storage including noodles, bread premixes etc. The solution was to trash everything out and empty almost the whole can of bayogon spray to the very cabinet and the surrounding, seal the kitchen for few hours and later keep all products of this sort in airtight plastic containers.

[Splatted]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

Yes, weevils. Not necessarily from rice you have just bough. We had once really huge problem with them here. They can eat through a normal plastic bag so we have infested our whole storage including noodles, bread premixes etc. The solution was to trach everything and empty almost the whole can of bayogon spray to the very cabinet and the surrounding, seal the kitchen for few hours and keep all products of this sort in airtight plastic containers.

Yes, this is what I do.. although, more for the convenience of storing away the rice.

I buy 5kg or 10kg bags and transfer the rice to these refillable rice containers which I have several of:

[x9200]

We use something similar to this:

Bought from ColdStorage - also holds 5kg or so.

[ksl]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

You really need to complain to New Moon, they are a well respected brand in Asia, this claim is bad news for them and they will act straight away to investigate, the problem of contamination, be careful with your remarks, because making false claims in Singapore is slanderous and they may be tempted to counterclaim it is possible your rice has been contaminated in your own storage area, and it is quite a serious case. So delete, the post. and take the matter up with them, for investigation.

I would also request compensation, they should be grateful for your cooperation and i'm sure they will get to the bottom of it.

Here is the link to the marketing teams website, contact them and request help. Keep the goods if possible, if you do not have them, contact them anyway so that they can investigate their supplier.

http://www.gjh.com.sg/brands/newmoon.asp

I can also supply the machine through a friend of mine to ensure this infestation doesn't happen. though i suspect the rice is outsourced abroad.

If you want excellent quality rice buy from www.ricemate.com though it is Taiwanese rice, it is much more tasteful not unlike Japanese sushi rice, a little sticky but you can eat it alone, because it has taste.

[durain]

at least you getting carbs and proteins (free range and organic too!)

stick some garlic in your rice bag (whole garlic skinned). it will get rid of those rice eating bugs.

[Splatted]

at least you getting carbs and proteins (free range and organic too!)

stick some garlic in your rice bag (whole garlic skinned). it will get rid of those rice eating bugs.

And lets be frank about this.

It's not like hawker stalls will take back 10kg sack of rice if there are one or two bugs crawling about.

They will wash it, remove the bugs, cook it, and serve it.

There's probably a very high chance we've all eaten rice that had come out of an infested bag at one stage or another, without even knowing it.

[ksl]

Splatted:They will wash it, remove the bugs, and serve it.

The bugs that is, as a side dish

[ozchick]

Brand: New Moon Rice
Problem: Twice in 2 months opened a new packet to find 'little black insects' crawling in there (weevils?).
Never had this problem in 45 yrs living and buying rice in Australia. Is there an excuse here for this re weather? Or is it just slack production?
Not sure if I can buy Australian-grown rice here but am gonna give it a try now. Pity. Local products are so much cheaper.

You really need to complain to New Moon, they are a well respected brand in Asia, this claim is bad news for them and they will act straight away to investigate, the problem of contamination, be careful with your remarks, because making false claims in Singapore is slanderous and they may be tempted to counterclaim it is possible your rice has been contaminated in your own storage area, and it is quite a serious case. So delete, the post. and take the matter up with them, for investigation.

I would also request compensation, they should be grateful for your cooperation and i'm sure they will get to the bottom of it.

Here is the link to the marketing teams website, contact them and request help. Keep the goods if possible, if you do not have them, contact them anyway so that they can investigate their supplier.

http://www.gjh.com.sg/brands/newmoon.asp

I can also supply the machine through a friend of mine to ensure this infestation doesn't happen. though i suspect the rice is outsourced abroad.

If you want excellent quality rice buy from www.ricemate.com though it is Taiwanese rice, it is much more tasteful not unlike Japanese sushi rice, a little sticky but you can eat it alone, because it has taste.

Have already complined via email. Well-respected brand or not, the web address on the packet is in such tiny print that I had to google the brand name to find contact address in order to complain. The phone number was visible on packet but didn't take messages. Nah, not impressed at all.
I also find it hard to believe that weevils could eat through plastic? If that were the case, plastic wouldn't be the chosen packaging type and the supermarket shelves would be very heavily infested surely? But will google this to check. There are no other weevils in my cupboards, only in the rice because it came with its visitors. This pack had only 2 of the insects in it. The previous pack had more. Have seen weevils in Oz but rarely in sealed packs unless it's flour in cardboard packs, and then it's believed to have been in the product as eggs that hatch later...
Funny though, checking the empty rice-pack just now I can see 2 tiny holes, perfectly formed that go through both sides of the pack, same size as staple holes. Now this is not insect-made cos it matches the hole on the other side, but why is it there? Mm...great oddness.

[ozchick]

Splatted:They will wash it, remove the bugs, and serve it.

The bugs that is, as a side dish

[Splatted]

Funny though, checking the empty rice-pack just now I can see 2 tiny holes, perfectly formed that go through both sides of the pack, same size as staple holes. Now this is not insect-made cos it matches the hole on the other side, but why is it there? Mm...great oddness.

Perhaps something was stapled to the bag at some stage.

Or the holes are there to let out air out of bag - can load more bags onto palette if there is is less volume to each bag

[x9200]

I also find it hard to believe that weevils could eat through plastic? If that were the case, plastic wouldn't be the chosen packaging type and the supermarket shelves would be very heavily infested surely?

First hand knowledge. I would not believe if I did not see it with my own eyes. They practically shredded few thinner plastic bags. Google confirms.

[SunWuKong]

I find that small weevils do not effect the taste of rice, so I don't even bother rinsing them out. As noted by Durian, a little bit more protein.

I have a thing against weevils in my flour though, so I usually put that in the fridge to keep the blighters dormant. Even if there are weevils to start with, they then at least have the decency to stay still whilst I prepare them for consumption.

[ozchick]

I also find it hard to believe that weevils could eat through plastic? If that were the case, plastic wouldn't be the chosen packaging type and the supermarket shelves would be very heavily infested surely?

First hand knowledge. I would not believe if I did not see it with my own eyes. They practically shredded few thinner plastic bags. Google confirms.

OMG! Then why isn't rice sold in cans?