Should you wash rice before cooking: here’s what science says about it

Experienced cooks say that the benefit of washing rice is to remove excess starch – due to this, the grains are no longer sticky. This is what can be seen in the water, which becomes cloudy after rinsing – as studies prove, during the soaking process, amylose is washed out – starch, which ends up on the surface grain during processing.

For this reason, chefs favor washing rice before cooking – except, of course, in recipes where stickiness is important, such as risotto, paella or rice pudding. In these cases, washing rice before cooking, according to professionals, is not only unnecessary, but it can be harmful, spoiling the consistency of the dish.

We can say that there are whole culinary schools on water procedures for cereals: cooks have different opinions on how to properly wash rice – some advise doing it with purified water with preliminary soaking , others think that a spray from the tap and 30 seconds is enough.

And, of course, a person’s opinion on whether or not rice should be washed before cooking is influenced by context. For example, there are countries where this action has a very simple meaning: there is a lot of waste and dust in the cereals. We prefer to wash rice by inertia – after all, that’s what our mothers and grandmothers did, and often we don’t even think about the impact of washing rice on the taste of the dish.

Surprisingly, it’s true: the culinary benefits of washing rice before cooking were the subject of scientific research in 2019. Three types of cereal were used for this: glutinous rice, medium-grain rice and rice. Jasmine – a long-grain variety also known as fragrant rice. They were tested three times: not washed at all, washed in water three times, and washed in water ten times.

Contrary to the opinion of chefs about the dangers of unwashed rice for the cooking result, it turned out that neither short nor long water procedures affect either the stickiness or hardness of the grains. Scientists have discovered that the stickiness is not caused by amylose, but by another starch leached from rice during cooking: amylopectin. Its quantity varied depending on the type of rice.

In other words, it doesn’t matter whether the rice is washed or not before cooking: the variety is decisive. So if the porridge comes out sticky, don’t scold yourself for not washing the grains thoroughly enough – it’s simply a matter of the type of grain you have.

Also read: Rice water for hair growth and shine – a cheap hack or a waste of time?

Do you think the questions and answers about washing rice are no longer worth discussing? It turns out not. However, the topic no longer has anything to do with cooking, we are talking about health. Let’s find out why scientists wash rice, they know for sure that this will not affect its stickiness in any way.

Traditionally, rice was washed to remove dust, insects or stones. However, it is incorrect to talk about it in the past tense – for some countries it is still relevant (and in our country not many years have passed since sorting buckwheat was a traditional evening pastime) .

However, now there is another factor due to which the effect of unwashed rice on the body can be harmful. We’re talking about microplastics: scientists have found them in various products, including rice. Even a quick rinse of rice has also been proven to reduce the amount of microplastics by 20%, and a thorough rinse reduces the amount of microplastics by 40%.

In addition, it is known that rice is one of the leaders in terms of arsenic content among foods, since this agricultural crop absorbs it as it grows. At the same time, Russian soil is particularly rich in arsenic in the south, where the main rice-growing regions are located.

A 2013 study found that rinsing rice removed 90% of bioavailable arsenic. Of course, there is not much substance in cereals anyway (the permissible concentration according to SanPiN standards is 0.2 mg per kg of dry weight), but it is still nice to know that after having washed off the poison, you eat a lot, a lot less, right?

But washing the rice has no effect on the number of bacteria: they die during cooking, not during rinsing. There is, however, an important caveat: cooking does not kill the Bacillus cereus bacterial spores that raw cereals may contain. Therefore, it is so important to follow the rules for storing already cooked rice: it must be put in the refrigerator as soon as possible, otherwise bacteria will appear from the spores, producing toxins dangerous for humans.

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