tips to avoid the infamous ‘plastic rice’ from China:
1 – Buy only from accredited and licensed store, or any designated public markets, supermarkets, or NFA accredited retailers.
2 – Be familiar with the characteristics of real rice. Regular-milled and well-milled rice are long-grained and not too white. Grains may vary in sizes since it is nature-made and not machine-made. Also, grains must be brittle.
3 – Be familiar with the characteristics of fake rice. Fake rice is too white, too round, too shiny. The grains are almost equally shaped which most probably are machine-made. Also, grains of fake rice are harder to break. When cooked, they usually produce a thin plastic layer on top of the grains which can be easily set on fire. The grains at the bottom crust are squeezed together to form a rubber.
4 – Smell the grains and be sure that its odor is not plastic.
5 – Avoid buying rice that is lighter than normal.
Wouldn't you just have to bite it to see if it is rice? By the way this is the first time I have heard of this.
Unfortunately there are all sorts of fake things in China. They even have fake eggs.
I saw a video about that fake rice. It resembles cellophane wrap as it's being fed into a machine that turns it into strands. It's then processed in another machine that gives it that familiar rice size and texture and bagged up. I won't post the brand that was on the bag because I can't really verify if the video is fake or not, but it was a really disconcerting thing to think of... I may have been duped into being a fan of cellophane and beans with a side of cornbread!