Storing Brown Rice

[jim]

I've had brown rice start to smell a little rancid after about one year in storage. Should I use CO2 or something like that to keep it fresh?

Thanks
jim

[Shamrock1121]

Here's some information from Walton Feed. Personally, for long term storage I only store white rice. Even when brown rice is vacuum sealed using a FoodSaver(absense of oxygen), it doesn't keep long enough for what I consider long term. I rotate brown rice more frequently than I do white rice, and keep much less of it on hand. -Karen

(Source: Walton Feed)
Brown and white rices store very differently. Brown rice is only expected to store for 6 months under average conditions. This is because of the essential fatty acids in brown rice. These oils quickly go rancid as they oxidize. It will store much longer if refrigerated. White rice has the outer shell removed along with those fats. Because of this, white rice isn't nearly as good for you, but will store longer. Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life for white rice of 8-10 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. It should keep proportionately longer if stored at cooler temperatures. Stored in the absence of oxygen, brown rice will last longer than if it was stored in air. Plan on 1 to 2 years. It is very important to store brown rice as cool as possible, for if you can get the temperature down another ten degrees, it will double the storage life again.

[kawalekm]

I've had success using quart sized glass jars that are filled with CO2. I drop a thumbnail sized chunk of dry ice into the bottum of the jar, fill with rice to the top, and LOOSELY screw on the metal cap. The way that works best for me is to carefully screw down the lid till almost tight, and then backing it off a bit till I hear a faint hiss of escaping CO2. In this way the CO@ displaces all the oxygen by pushing out the top: the jar won't let in any more air because it's almost tight, but the lid is not on tight enough to burst the jar. After letting the jar sit still for a few hours, I carefully tighten the lids for storage. Take a peek at the bottum of each jar to make sure the dry ice has all evaporated. This storage technique works well for things like rice, beans, nut meats, or any other oily dry good that you'd expect to go rancid. Another plus of CO2 is that the gas kills any insect eggs that might be present.