Lately I have seen some discussions on the long-term storage of brown rice. Some people and websites have put forth antidotal evidence that it can be stored for as much as 10 years or so.
While I agree completely with the idea that brown rice is superior in nutrition to white rice, the research that I have done points to a much shorter shelf life. For many years the LDS (Mormon) Church as advised against the long term storage of brown rice, based on research conducted by Brigham Young University.
The University of Nebraska, at Lincoln published the following statement on the storage of brown rice. “Because of the oil in its bran layer, brown rice has a shorter shelf life than white rice and maintains its quality for about six months. For longer storage, refrigerate or freeze brown rice”.
The USA Rice federation has the following statement on their website, “The bran layer contains a small amount of oil, and so brown rice has a shorter shelf-life than white rice. Store uncooked brown rice at room temperature up to 6 months, or refrigerate or freeze for longer shelf life”.
I have been unable to find any information that validates the long-term storage of brown rice. I do not include brown rice in my storage, because I want foods that I can trust to be good when I have to open them in an emergency. This is a situation in which you can’t afford to take chances.
The following is a research study performed by BYU (Brigham Young University) on regular and parboiled rice. Quality of regular and parboiled rice in long-term storage.
This shows that both regular white rice and parboiled rice can be stored for many years. Now as a result of this study you have a better option than white rice, store parboiled rice.
Because of the method by which it is processed, parboiled rice is a better source of fiber, calcium, potassium and vitamin B-6 than regular white rice. It is rich in niacin, providing 4 milligrams, or 23 percent of your recommended daily requirement in 1 cup of cooked rice. You’ll also get 19 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin B-6. This about double what you would get from non-enriched white rice. It also has double the fiber.
According to Harvard Health Publications, it has a low glycemic score of 38, compared to white rice which has a score of 89. This means that the carbohydrates in parboiled rice will not cause a large spike in blood sugar.
I strongly suggest that you avoid the long-term storage of brown rice and substitute parboiled rice.
Howard
What about ‘brown parboiled rice’? We just opened up and cooked some brown parboiled rice we packed 4 years ago. It was fine as far as I could tell. How can we tell if it has gone bad? It seemed fine to me. Granted, we had it packed in mylar and storage buckets in a relatively cool & dry location (the basement).
The tests that the LDS church ran were on parboiled white rice. I would not store the brown for long term.
Howard
You can tell it is bad because it smells rancid, like oil gone bad. Don’t feed it to your animals either. It is not good for them. The smell is horrific, so you should not be in doubt about whether it is good or not.
Parboiled brown rice will last almost as long as white rice.
What is it in the brown rice that goes bad? My guess is that its the oil going rancid due to contact with air. If so, vacuum packing the rice or packing it with oxygen absorbers might significantly prolong its storage life. Check it out.
Hangtown Frank
While my experience may be considered worthless by some because it is anecdotal, my blog post includes links from “specialists” who say that parboiled brown rice has 80% of the nutrition of brown rice and much more than white rice and stores as long as white rice which is stripped of nutrition.
You can parboil your own brown rice if you have any that you fear will become rancid.
First of all I do not consider your experience worthless and agree with you on the nutrition of parboiled brown rice. I am just not sure if it stores as long as parboiled white rice. I for one would like more information on this, I am still learning.
Howard
Howard,
Thank you. Read the links in my post. Those links and my experience convinced me. That rice hung around here for years and never went bad. I was shocked. Reading and my experience convinced me. I do put it in the freezer, either in the bag or already in Ball jars. I take the jars, removed the lids and put the jars of parboiled brown rice in an oven that has been briefly brought to about 175 and then turned off. The freezing kills any bug and weevil eggs already present. The slight heat is meant to drive off any moisture. The Ball jar with a canning lid and ring keeps any moisture from the air from entering the jar of rice.
Yes, I meant to say parboiled brown rice stores “almost” as long as white rice.
Ooops, parboiled brown rice stores for almost as long as white rice.
I did not include a link to my parboiled brown rice post to promote myself! I included it for information. No other person has ever removed that link. And, you were one of my favorite bloggers.
Well, you still are one of my favorite bloggers.
Does anyone have any information on how long brown rice pasta can be stored, and how it should be stored.
Exactly how do I parboil rice? Also, so much of the brown, even organic rice, upon purchase does have a slight rancid odor. Can you advise?
SG