“Plastic Rice” Issue Crops Up Yet Again – It’s Debunking Time!
Recent allegations of bouncy rice balls claimed to be plastic rice lead Bernas & KPDN to clarify the news to be fake.
Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter, or Telegram and WhatsApp channels for the latest stories and updates.
The issue of plastic rice has resurfaced lately. Claims of plastic rice have been circulating the internet, causing people, gullible ones, to panic.
Recently, a video in September went viral after a TikTok user claimed that when his wife cooked the rice in the rice cooker, the rice emitted a thin film at the side of the pot.
He claimed that the thin film tasted like plastic and he can’t chew it. He then deduced that the rumours about the recent viral plastic rice could be true, seeing the unedible thin film he held.
His video got a lot of attention and many people in the comments laughed at him. Some of them pointed out that it’s just starch.
The thin starchy film meant that the rice was not washed properly and there might be too much water in it. When excessive water is used, it turns into steam and combines itself with the residue starch from the rice to produce a thin gummy film, that feels like rice paper.
The plastic rice news is fake
Besides that, a few videos on social media showed that bouncy rice balls are evidence of plastic rice.
One particular case was in Cheras where a man claimed that his Nasi Lemak had plastic in it. He rounded the rice into a ball and bounced it on the table. As the ball didn’t break down and still stayed in its spherical form, he was sure that it was made from plastic.
Another recent case was in Sandakan (9 October), where a guy showed up at a store and said the rice he bought there had plastic in it. He bounced the rice ball he brought with him into the store and suspected that all the rice sold there might have plastic in it.
As the video went viral, the rice brand, SazaRice, quickly issued a statement saying the allegation was fake and that their imported rice follows the standards recognized by HALAL, HACCP and ISO 9001. In fact, the brand also called the man to their Sandakan office and asked him to do an apology video for spreading fake news, which he did.
The Ministry of Domestic Trade And Cost of Living (KPDN) took note of the issue and said their Sandakan branch and Rice and Paddy Control Division (KPB) will investigate the issue thoroughly.
Bernas speaks out
Meanwhile, Bernas, our country’s sole rice importer, denied allegations that its products contain a mixture of plastic rice.
In a statement, they said that all types of imported rice brought into the country come with quality certification and government-specified rice specifications.
(Credit: Freepik)
All types of imported rice brought into the country are subject to stringent requirements and a thorough quality inspection process, beginning from the supplying country and continuing until it reaches our country.
Bernas, Malaysia’s sole rice importer company
Bernas assures that the imported rice supplied by the company is genuine and safe for public consumption.
They also advised the public to not easily believe and spread fake news regarding this matter as it might tarnish the company’s reputation. Those who do will face legal action from them.
Why is the plastic rice controversy so popular?
Believe it or not, the whole world (not just Malaysia) thought bouncy rice balls were suspicious once upon a time. These plastic rice conspiracies were widespread among countries like India, Indonesia, Singapore, Nigeria and other African and Southeast Asian countries.
According to Lead Stories, the issue started way back in 2010 when a couple of YouTube videos showed how plastic was turned into rice form by a machine in a rice mill, allegedly in China. The video travelled the world and caused panic.
(Credit: Freepik)
Another issue in China that contributed to the plastic rice controversy was probably the fake Wuchang rice scandal where companies were passing off ordinary rice as premium Wuchang grains. Although they didn’t mention any food made from plastic.
Later on, a few media sites and researchers debunked the mystery saying that the videos were just a plastic granulation process in a plastic manufacturing company.
But still, a lot of people had doubts about it and said the rice they ate felt chewy, the rice ball was bouncy, the rice had a funny smell and lots more allegations.
It’s not plastic rice! Here are the reasons why
Here, we combined some of the explanations for people to understand why the plastic rice controversy is most likely fake.
Tests found no elements of plastic
First of all, most rice brands or food safety agencies tested the alleged rice and found that there were no traces of plastic. Both our local agencies and the international agencies tested their alleged plastic rice and found nothing.
Plastic rice is way more expensive to produce
Besides that, rice manufacturers pointed out that producing plastic rice would require way more money than producing regular ones and why would they want to take that risk?
Another source from BBC states that the plastic chips seen earlier in the viral videos were usually used in shipping boxes. The cost of the chips is actually way more expensive than real rice.
All rice balls are bouncy
According to a UK-based Rice Association, when prepared the right way, rice can actually bounce. “The characteristics of rice are carbohydrates and proteins and you can do something like that with rice,” said the director of the association.
As reported by Boom, scientifically, the fluffiness of the normal cooked rice will have a bouncing effect when shaped into a ball form due to volume expansion and water/air entrapment.
The Boom team also tried a few kitchen experiments with their own rice balls to check if they bounce. They guarantee that you can make any brand of cooked rice ball bounce if you try hard enough.
It may not be plastic rice but it might be bad rice
Citing Food Safety News, Chris Elliott, professor of food safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, said that plastic rice might not actually be plastic, but just bad rice.
Due to the Nigerian case of illegally shipped rice in 2016, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) found out that the rice, allegedly shipped from China, did not contain plastic, in fact, it contained microorganisms.
Since he has been investigating rice fraud for a number of years, Elliot said the plastic rice might be actual rice that had been poorly stored for up to a decade.
(Credit: Freepik)
“Plastic rice is not made from plastic, it is rice that has been stored for up to 10 years and not stored particularly well.
“The rice had become badly contaminated with moulds and instead of that nice white colour, had turned into an unpleasant green colour and what the fraudsters had done was they had taken that rice out of the stores and bleached it to get back the white colour.
“The only problem was whenever you bleach rice it loses the nice shiny surface so to get that back they sprayed it with paraffin wax. With that paraffin coating on it, it didn’t cook properly, hence the reason it was called plastic rice.”
So now we know that there’s nothing to worry about in our pack of rice except, well, the steep increase in price these days.
READ MORE: Rice Crisis In Malaysia: What’s The Story?
READ MORE: Rice Prices In Malaysia Increase By 10-15% In One Week?
READ MORE: Ever Wondered Where These Beetle Looking Bugs In Our Rice Pack Came From?
Share your thoughts with us via TRP’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Threads.
