{"id":214,"date":"2021-09-02T07:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T07:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/?p=214"},"modified":"2022-05-30T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T13:32:38","slug":"can-rice-go-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/can-rice-go-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does Rice Last and How To Tell If It&#8217;s Bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:75.111111111111%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style>\n<p>Dry rice lasts for months, but some varieties keep longer than others. While white and wild rice store for years, brown rice only keeps for about a year until it goes rancid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But no matter the variety, cooked rice keeps for only a couple of days unless you freeze it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to learn a thing or two about storage, shelf life, and spoilage of rice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If so, this guide is for you. I divided it into two parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"#dry\">Dry Rice<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#cooked\">Cooked Rice<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Feel free to jump to the section you&rsquo;re interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"dry\">Dry Rice<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Have an old package of dry rice on hand and some follow-up questions about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&rsquo;s answer those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-216\" src=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg\" alt=\"Rice\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-216 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20450%20338'%3E%3Crect%20width='450'%20height='338'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Rice\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg.webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice-300x225.jpg.webp 300w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><br>(credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/indiebandswithamission\/4054154507\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Indie Bands With a Mission<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-long-does-dry-rice-last\">How Long Does Dry Rice Last?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Dry white rice lasts pretty much indefinitely, while dry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/can-brown-rice-go-bad\/\">brown rice<\/a> keeps for about a year before it goes rancid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason behind that is white rice has its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/White_rice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">husk, bran, and germ removed<\/a>. That means it&rsquo;s missing many of the nutrients that brown rice offers, but it also contains very little fat that&rsquo;s prone to rancidification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of that, many brands say white rice&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bensoriginal.com\/faq-contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">keeps indefinitely<\/a>. And that&rsquo;s why some of them pack brown rice in smaller packages than white rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For brown rice, each grain has its outside bran layer (where the oil is) intact, and that&rsquo;s why it keeps for only a year to maybe a year and a half (e.g.,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bensoriginal.com\/faq-contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ben&rsquo;s Original suggest 16 months<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&rsquo;s also wild rice, which isn&rsquo;t rice but water grass, though it looks similar. Like white rice, it keeps&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/canoewildrice.com\/your-need-to-know-qas-about-canoe-wild-rice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">pretty much indefinitely<\/a>, as long as you store it properly.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"rancid-brown-rice\">Rancid Brown Rice<\/h3>\n\n\n<p><strong>Brown rice going rancid is a process that takes weeks, if not months.<\/strong>&nbsp;So it&rsquo;s not like the rice will be perfectly fine one day and smell like old paint the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, it will progress gradually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, you probably won&rsquo;t notice any changes. Then you might pick up on the smell being a bit weird or the taste slightly different from what you&rsquo;re used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over time, the off smell will become stronger and easier to notice. The same thing happens to the flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there&rsquo;s no way to tell you at which point you should discard the brown rice. It&rsquo;s up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My suggestion is quite simple: you throw it out when you can quickly notice that it smells off, or you&rsquo;re no longer okay with the flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"does-dry-rice-expire\">Does Dry Rice Expire?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Dry rice always comes with a date printed on the label, no matter if it&rsquo;s white, brown, or any other variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That date is a best-by date, which is about food quality. It&rsquo;s not an expiration date, and it&rsquo;s not about food safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how should you go about the printed date? Here are some rough guidelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>for&nbsp;<strong>white rice<\/strong>, it should be okay for months and years past its date<\/li><li>for&nbsp;<strong>brown rice<\/strong>, it should stay fine for a couple of extra months, but it&rsquo;ll go rancid at some point<\/li><li><strong>wild rice<\/strong>, like white rice, keeps for years past the printed date<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All of the above assumes that the rice didn&rsquo;t go bad or become unsafe to eat for other reasons. Speaking of which, let&rsquo;s talk about the signs that your rice is spoiled.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-to-tell-if-dry-rice-is-bad\">How To Tell If Dry Rice Is Bad?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Signs that your rice has gone bad or is unsafe to eat include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Pantry pests.<\/strong>&nbsp;If any of those get into the bag, it&rsquo;s time to discard it. Unless, of course, you don&rsquo;t mind some extra protein in your rice. Jokes aside, throw out the bag and check nearby food products for bugs too. Those things spread quickly.<\/li><li><strong>Mold.<\/strong>&nbsp;If there&rsquo;s any, I&rsquo;m sure you don&rsquo;t need me to tell you what to do.<\/li><li><strong>Dampness or water.<\/strong>&nbsp;The presence of either usually results in mold within a couple of days, and you have no idea how far mold growth has come. Get rid of it.<\/li><li><strong>Off smell.<\/strong>&nbsp;Any sour, moldy, or &ldquo;funny&rdquo; smell is a pretty sure sign the rice is no good. If it&rsquo;s brown rice and it smells harsh or like old paint (or reminds you of some other chemicals), that rice is rancid. Once again, discard it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>To limit the chances of any of the above happening, you should follow proper storage practices. Let&rsquo;s talk about those.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-to-store-dry-rice\">How To Store Dry Rice<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Store dry rice in a cool and dry place, away from any strong smells that it can absorb. The pantry or a kitchen cupboard are both great options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you open up the bag or container, remember to seal the leftover rice tightly so that it&rsquo;s safe from the environment outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plastic containers or those large kitchen containers for things like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/can-flour-go-bad\/\">flour<\/a> work great. A simple sealing clip is also a decent option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don&rsquo;t have any issues with humidity and pantry pests, a loose seal (just the top wrapped) is usually okay too. I store rice this way all the time and had an issue only once when pantry bugs infested the cupboard that rice was in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, the sort-of-sealed rice solution works great until it doesn&rsquo;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last, you can freeze rice to preserve its freshness for longer. It&rsquo;s an okay option for brown rice that you want to store long-term, assuming you have some extra room in the freezer. Unfortunately, I don&rsquo;t, and I don&rsquo;t know anyone who stores rice in the freezer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-paragraph-tip\">If you want to freeze rice, make sure it&rsquo;s sealed tight in an airtight container or freezer bag. When you need some, just pour as much as you need and return the rest to the freezer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&rsquo;m pretty sure you know all of the above already, but I still wanted to talk about these for the sake of comprehensiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"cooked\">Cooked Rice<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>You cooked your rice, and have some leftovers. Let&rsquo;s talk about a couple of topics that you might be wondering about.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-long-does-cooked-rice-last-in-the-fridge\">How Long Does Cooked Rice Last in the Fridge?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Cooked rice keeps for about 4 days in the fridge, no matter which rice variety you have. That&rsquo;s the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/healthy-lifestyle\/nutrition-and-healthy-eating\/expert-answers\/food-safety\/faq-20058500\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">standard storage time for perishable leftovers<\/a>, and it applies to rice too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people, me included, keep cooked rice in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, but that&rsquo;s pretty much the max.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freezing is a great option if you need more time than that (here&rsquo;s an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canyoufreezethis.com\/can-you-freeze-cooked-rice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article on freezing cooked rice<\/a>&nbsp;on our sister site&nbsp;CanYouFreezeThis.com). Thousands of meal preppers do that every week, and it doesn&rsquo;t involve much work.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-long-can-cooked-rice-sit-out\">How Long Can Cooked Rice Sit Out?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p><strong>Cooked rice stays safe for two hours at room temperature, or for up to an hour if the temperature is above 90&deg;F (or 32&deg;C).<\/strong>&nbsp;That&rsquo;s the official recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can be super strict about it or a bit looser and use it more as a guideline than a rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, your pot of rice is covered and sits on the counter for almost 3 hours because you forgot to refrigerate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you follow the official recommendation, you need to discard it. But if you cooked that rice those 3 hours ago, used clean spoons to scoop it, and promptly covered the pot, the rice should most likely be okay. It&rsquo;s up to you if you throw it out or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said,&nbsp;<strong>if you decide to bend the rules a bit, be smart about it<\/strong>. If you accidentally left cooked rice on the counter overnight, getting rid of it in the morning is the only safe option.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-to-tell-if-cooked-rice-is-spoiled\">How To Tell If Cooked Rice Is Spoiled?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Here&rsquo;s what to look for when checking if your cooked rice is still okay to eat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Dark specs and signs of mold.<\/strong>&nbsp;If there&rsquo;s any of that on the surface, that portion of rice is done for. Give your refrigerated rice a good visual check before reheating it because if it got contaminated, it might grow mold within a day of placing it in the fridge (been there).<\/li><li><strong>Off smell.<\/strong>&nbsp;If the rice smells funny, weird, or off in any other way, it&rsquo;s not safe to eat.<\/li><li><strong>Too long storage time.<\/strong>&nbsp;If your cooked rice sits in the fridge for more than 4 to 5 days, it&rsquo;s no longer safe. It might look and smell perfectly fine, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;s okay to eat. If you know your rice might sit in the refrigerator for more than a couple of days, it&rsquo;s best to freeze it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As usual, if anything else about the rice seems off, err on the side of caution and assume it&rsquo;s bad. Better safe than sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-to-store-cooked-rice\">How To Store Cooked Rice<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Once your cooked rice cools to about room temperature, you should refrigerate it. And make sure it doesn&rsquo;t take more than 2 hours from cooking to refrigerating the leftovers, just to be safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For storage, use resealable containers or even the pot you cooked the rice in, assuming it comes with a lid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-paragraph-tip\">If you have a massive portion of rice to cool down, separate it into smaller ones and spread over a bunch of plates. It will be ready for refrigeration in 15 &ndash; 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, always use clean spoons when handling cooked rice. Using dirty utensils is an easy way to contaminate cooked rice with microbes and end up with rice that&rsquo;s spoiled prematurely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last, remember that freezing cooked rice is an option. If you have more than you can handle in a few days, it&rsquo;s best to portion and freeze the rest so that it doesn&rsquo;t go bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can rice go bad? is a pretty tricky question to answer. As a matter of fact, this popular food can actually go bad, but only if you won&#8217;t store it properly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"","disable-critical-css":false},"categories":[265],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_1x1":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_3x4":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_3x4_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_3x4_med_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",360,270,false],"mv_trellis_3x4_low_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",240,180,false],"mv_trellis_4x3":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_16x9":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_srcset-960":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_trellis_srcset-1080":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"1200x1200":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_1x1":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",200,150,false],"mv_create_1x1_medium_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",320,240,false],"mv_create_1x1_medium_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_1x1_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_4x3":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",320,240,false],"mv_create_4x3_medium_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_4x3_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_3x4":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",240,180,false],"mv_create_3x4_medium_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",360,270,false],"mv_create_3x4_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_16x9":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",240,180,false],"mv_create_16x9_medium_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",359,270,false],"mv_create_16x9_high_res":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_no_ratio":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false],"mv_create_vert":["https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice.jpg",450,338,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Marcin Skrzypiec","author_link":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/about\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Can rice go bad? is a pretty tricky question to answer. As a matter of fact, this popular food can actually go bad, but only if you won't store it properly.","mv":{"thumbnail_id":216,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rice-300x225.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canitgobad.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}