# Stockpiling brown rice?



## TheMrs (Jun 11, 2008)

We try to follow the advice of "Prep what you eat and eat what you prep." We would like to stop using white rice and convert over to brown rice. My concern is that brown rice doesn't have the shelf-life that white rice does. So, does anyone here stockpile brown rice and, if so, is there a special trick to getting it to keep for any length of time? Thanks!


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

Freezing and/or vacuum sealing will prolong the life a bit, but not to a great extent. I don't know of any way to store it so that the oils don't go rancid quickly, when compared to other similar foods. 

I've been looking for a way to do it for a while, now, but haven't turned up anything that'll give more than a few extra months of storage.

Lee


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## ChristyACB (Apr 10, 2008)

I spoke with an LDS member about brown rice storage once. They took the whole "one year" supply thing very seriously and ate brown rice. I asked how they stored it since I'd never had much luck with it staying good for very long. She told me that they didn't. That they had simply accepted there really was no way and used white rice for storage purposes and gave away when they rotated vice eating that rotation. 

The way I figure it, if LDS folks haven't figured out a way to store brown rice long term, it probably can't be done!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Try parboiled instead (not instant). It retains the natural vitamins, cooks a bit faster and stays fluffy. Stores as well as white rice.


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

http://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18184
We keep our brown rice in qt. canning jars on the bottom of the fridge door


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Has to be refrigerated/frozen to keep any lenght of time.


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2010)

TheMrs said:


> We try to follow the advice of "Prep what you eat and eat what you prep." We would like to stop using white rice and convert over to brown rice. My concern is that brown rice doesn't have the shelf-life that white rice does. So, does anyone here stockpile brown rice and, if so, is there a special trick to getting it to keep for any length of time? Thanks!


I have a couple hundred pounds of brown rice (mostly short grain), and I have it all frozen and refrigerated.

It stays good a long time that way.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

according the AT Hagan's food storage faq:



> http://athagan.members.atlantic.net/PFSFAQ/PFSFAQ-3-1.html#Grains
> 
> The essential oil in the germ is very susceptible to oxidation and soon goes rancid. As a result, brown rice has a shelf life of only about six months unless given special packaging or storage. Freezing or refrigeration will greatly extend this.


i use brown rice. my overall food stocks are somewhere between 6 months and a year, so i'm not currently at the point where i'm trying to store anything for several years, rice included. when i do, i'll have white rice stored for longer-term, if needed, and continue to use brown rice for shorter term until it's unavailable or unaffordable.

the first 25 lb bag i purchased, it had a slight cardboard smell after about 10 months, at which point i'd eaten about 20 lbs of it, so the last few pounds went to the chickens of someone at the farmers market. 

after rotating thru the freezer for bugs, i keep my rice in an unsealed mylar bag inside a 5 gallon bucket (lard can from lehman's actually), which is stored in the air conditioned house.

the original purchase was in november, so it stays a bit cooler and less humid in the house during the winter time. if i'd purchased in july/aug here in tx, it's a bit hotter even inside, and perhaps it wouldn't last as long. perhaps i simply have no tastebuds for detecting rancidity, i don't know. 

the second 25 lbs i bought only lasted me 6 months until i'd finished eating it, and it was still tasty to my mind. might have also lasted longer if i had any left to eat, but i didn't.

to my mind, i prefer the extra nutrition and the extra flavor of brown rice. and it's better for your blood sugar, important to me considering my mom has adult onset diabetes, so i'm somewhat genetically susceptible . 

i don't have the freezer or fridge space now to store it there, altho that would be a good solution. i might switch to vac sealed mason jars at some point if i have a problem, but the 5 gal bucket seems to work for me and is convenient. 

--sgl


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

My betters have spoken.

No brown rice, post apocalypse, unless you grow it yourself. It can't be too hard (outside of the vast amounts of manual labor involved) as millions of peasants grow it.

White rice is the rice for storage... if you want the vitamins, you'll need to store them.


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## Laverne (May 25, 2008)

I stockpile wild rice. Found a good price on it. It's supposed to last like wheat. I like it a lot better than brown rice.


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

I recently bought a case of canned brown rice from one of the stockpiling websites. I'm hoping this is the trick that keeps the spoilage at bay.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I store the parboiled. It was the best I could do.


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## jtjf_1 (Nov 7, 2009)

This confuses me as here we store rice for a year in the husk and it is still good. In the village we hand process two days of rice at a time from our rice barn. We only have one harvest a year here so the rice needs to store for a year. In fact the rice can stay for more than 2 years. It may be an option to look at in getting rice with the husk still on. Processing is time consuming though here is a video of how to make it fun like we do in the village

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD7wpgIOl50[/ame]


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## jtjf_1 (Nov 7, 2009)

Here is another one 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB0b1sqXbzQ[/ame]

PS I did not make these videos my wife said i could not share the video of her working


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2010)

jtjf_1 said:


> This confuses me as here we store rice for a year in the husk and it is still good. In the village we hand process two days of rice at a time from our rice barn. We only have one harvest a year here so the rice needs to store for a year. In fact the rice can stay for more than 2 years. It may be an option to look at in getting rice with the husk still on.


That's called paddy rice here and it's really hard to find in this country unless you live close to where they grow rice.

Keep in mind that in this country, rice is only grown in a few limited regions. It's not practical to grow it in most places in the US.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

May I suggest barley and oats then?

We stock these grains and they store very well for us.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

When the husk is removed, the bran layer is exposed and begins to go rancid fairly fast. Removing the bran layer takes away a lot of nutrients, but the remaining rice keeps longer.


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## jtjf_1 (Nov 7, 2009)

Ah see I knew there was a reason so now I just need to find someone to ship paddy (that's what we call it as well in Indonesian).

Its interesting how English has one name rice

Were as in Indonesia we have a name for each stage. 

Paddy (with husk)
Beras (cleaned uncooked)
Nasi (cooked)

In my wife's language it goes even further in-depth but we won't go there.


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## Lone Pine (Jan 11, 2010)

I LOVE this forum! I learn at least one new usefull thing everytime I visit!


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## Vashti (Dec 22, 2006)

We pretty much do as the LDS lady does. We store white, and will eat it if there were a real crisis, but we prefer brown because of the health benefits. So, we purchase brown rice to eat for our regular meals, and have about a two - three month supply on hand at all times. Then, we have a larger stockpile of white rice that we're building so that we can have a year's supply of food on hand. At least, this is my goal...as soon as I can get this baby out and get back to being the one doing the shopping!!!


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## clong (May 9, 2009)

anyone ever tried canning the brown rice for longer term storage?


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

Here's a link I found for canned brown rice.
http://www.campingsurvival.com/yocalogrbrri.html


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

And another link;
http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-634/Canned-Can-Long-Grain/Detail


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

clong said:


> anyone ever tried canning the brown rice for longer term storage?


Would the canning be as in the metal can canning, or the glass jar canning?

I went and looked at the link for the canned brown rice... they really didn't say, but I'd have to imagine that it was simply vacuum packed in the cans. It'd be a non starter for me, there prices are over 10x what white rice costs. If I had unlimited funds, canned brown might be an option... but till I'm rich, I'll have to go with 10x more of white for the same price. Adding whatevers available (greens, scrap meats, fish bones, etc.) to the white later on, to make it more palatable. 

"Home canning" in a fruit jar, with a vacuum, might prolong the life a while. Alan's talked about this. Any kind of heat in the canning process, would destroy the vitamins.

Outside of the expensive canned stuff, freezing would seem to be the best method of storing it... but the bugaboo is when the grid goes down for good, you have to use it or lose it.


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

After looking at the prices, I agree with you. I can't see paying those prices for brown rice that's sealed in metal cans. We eat both brown and white rice on a regular basis. So, for as long as I can, I'll continue to buy brown rice within the amounts we'll consume before it turns rancid in storage. And, I'm building our supply of white rice when/if the time comes when we can't get either from the stores. 

Personally, I'd rather spend the $$ difference between "canned" rice and off the grocery shelf rice for other things to go into my preps. Beans to go with the white rice, for example. Or dry pasta and Classico tomato sauce that comes in canning jars. 

While I'd love to have a big stockpile of long shelf life brown rice, my prepping budget doesn't stretch but so far.

Lee


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## mosepijo (Oct 21, 2008)

Cook a huge pot and then dehydrate it. http://www.dehydrate2store.com/recipes/viewRecipe.php?id=20


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

looks like the canned brown rice is nitrogen flushed.

perhaps those with access to LDS canneries, they could dry-pack brown rice in #10 cans and toss in o2 absorbers to get essentially the same thing? not sure the relative efficacy of o2 absorbers vs nitrogen flushing, and the impact on shelf-life, but i'd guess they'd be close.

--sgl


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

mosepijo said:


> Cook a huge pot and then dehydrate it. http://www.dehydrate2store.com/recipes/viewRecipe.php?id=20


That link is for white rice. I've been thinking about doing some white rice that way, in order to have some "instant" rice for last minute meal preps.

So far, I haven't found anything that indicates cooking and dehydrating brown rice will prolong the shelf life. From what I understand, cooking it doesn't change the oil content.

I, too, wish I could find definitive info on the differences between oxy absorbers, vacuum sealing, and oxygen displacement (nitrogen) with regards to prolonging shelf life of foods. Hope someone has some valid info on how they stack up against each other. 

Lee


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2010)

NCLee said:


> I, too, wish I could find definitive info on the differences between oxy absorbers, vacuum sealing, and oxygen displacement (nitrogen) with regards to prolonging shelf life of foods. Hope someone has some valid info on how they stack up against each other.


 If such a study exists I've never come across it.

The problem with brown rice is that oxidative rancidity is not the only reaction going on with it as it ages. There are other processes that cause the germ oil to go rancid as well. They aren't generally considered though because oxidative rancidity works faster. It's much the same with any partially processed whole grain where the kernel has been damaged but the germ oil not fully removed including white flour. Rolled oats lasts longer because the groats are typically steamed first before rolling and the fact that oats contains some natural anti-oxidants that retards rancidty.

In my personal experience of the three methods you mentioned I'd have to put nitrogen flushing as last in the methods that will keep foods best longest. This isn't to say it can't work, only that it's harder to flush a container so well as to remove enough oxygen to get the job done. Use a little care, some good technique and the coarser textured foods (such as whole grains) it can be done without too much trouble. The finer the particle texture though (flours, meals, dry milks, etc) the more difficult to adequately flush the intersitial spaces. I would use this process only with the coarser textured foods and then only if I were able to do a careful job of it. 

This is why oxygen absorbers became popular. The rusting reaction of the iron inside the absorber absorbs the free oxygen in the container until the free oxygen is all one or the iron fully oxidized (this is why sizing the absorber to the container is important). Don't put a desiccant pack next to the absorber so that it pulls the moisture out of it before it can finish working. Also, with fine textured foods such as flour don't pack it down hard. Apparently it's possible to pack stuff like flour hard enough that the partial pressure of oxygen won't be able to equalize across the internal volume of the container meaning that the area around the absorber will be oxygen free, but the area furthest away from it will not be. More coarsely textured foods won't have this problem.

Vacuum sealing works differently from absorption. The _percentage_ of oxygen in the container head gas remains the same as in the outside atmosphere, but the _total amount_ of it decreases along with everything else as the air pressure within falls. Get it over twenty four inches of vacuum and you're good. The harder the vacuum you can pull the better, but don't go crazy with it because some jars and other containers won't take a hard vacuum over about twenty eight inches (i.e. no mayonaise jars). In my personal experience a properly vacuum sealed container will keep identical foods as well as using oxygen absorbers does. I have no lab studies to this regard, just personal experience. I've vacuum packed non-fat dry milk in canning jars and kept it good for over ten years here in warm, humid Florida. When we finished the last jar of it last year I could not determine any difference in smell, taste, color, or texture compared to fresh dry milk of the same brand. The same for a number of herbs, spices, chocolate, and so on.

Another method from the above three that works well for some food types is flushing with carbon dioxide. It can be effective at a much lower concentration than nitrogen. Using either compressed gas or dry ice a high level of carbon dioxide in the container head gas can inhibit or kill adult insects, eggs, and larvae as well as provides some anti-microbial activity at a much lower concentration than what is required with nitrogen. Again though this works better with coarser textured foods. Works well for preventing weevil infestations, less well for purging all of the oxygen out of a container.

As I said in the FAQ brown rice requires either _special packaging_ or refrigeration if you want to keep it for more than about six months. Either oxygen absorption or vacuum-sealing then storage in the ubiquitous cool, dry, dark (in the case of glass) place will get you two to three years. Not nearly as long as white rice, but a lot better than six months. A cooler storage environment than what I have here in Florida (those cool/cold northern basements) should be able to better that.

If brown rice isn't viable then the next best alternative is parboiled or converted rice. It begins with rice that is first soaked and steamed while still in the hull which drives some of the protein and other nutrients into the endosperm. It is then dried then milled as ordinary white rice is and keeps just as well when properly packaged. It's an old process that began in India a couple of thousand years ago so it's got a long history. It cooks a bit differently than raw white rice, but is generally interchangeable for most purposes.

.....Alan.


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

Thank you, so much for your reply. It does help, as I've been using a FoodSaver and canning jars. Just didn't know how that stacked up to the other methods. If I can get 2 years with brown rice, stored in that manner, I'll be happy. 

Now I can feel more confident about buying more brown and vac sealing it. While I don't have ideal storage conditions, either, here in NC, most things keep pretty well for fairly long periods of time, based on their suggested shelf life.

Thanks, again.
Lee


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## Tracey S (Jan 8, 2022)

nehimama said:


> I recently bought a case of canned brown rice from one of the stockpiling websites. I'm hoping this is the trick that keeps the spoilage at bay.


Curious since its been 10 years since your comment, have you opened a can? Im in the process of pressure canning my brown rice


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## lmrose (Sep 24, 2009)

This is very interesting. We don't grow rice so we don't eat rice. But we did grow wheat and hand thrashed it and stored it in jute bags inside 5 gallon plastic pails with a tight lid. We also grew oats and hand thrashed them and stored the same way kept in a cool dark place. We have part of a pail of each left and it has been there since 2005 and still looks good and there are no bugs in the grain! That is about fifth-teen years now. I want to grind some but the old flour mill broke; and try cooking it but Bill would rather use it for hen feed! Don't know what the nutritional value is after so long but it never went rancid. I wonder if brown rice would keep the same way?


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Hey, @nehimama! Come and answer this question! I'm curious too. <G>

Seriously, I know you probably don't have the product any more, but just in case...

I wonder if anyone has tried wet-canning the rice in jars? I bought a 50 pound bag of brown rice, put it in the freezer to kill off any beasties, and then took it out. It doesn't last long at room temp. 

But I think I might could maybe can it wet in jars. Hmm... Going to hop over to a rebel canning group to ask. I'll try to remember to post back here.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

p.s. The links posted in the older posts are dead.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Use glass canning jars with a plastic lid like what comes on a peanut butter jar,
and just store the rice dry in a cupboard. I have a room that is about 60 in the winter so
not too hot. That way you can keep any mice out also I use some rice for dog food and will also cook some for the chickens. I have rice in a plastic half gallon size in the kitchen cupboard, that I am currently using.

Try this link....
How to Store Rice in Mason Jars for Long-Term Storage | Great Lakes Prepping


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