Can I eat this? Edition: musty/lysol brown rice

April 5, 2020 11:24 PM

Before hunkering down for quarantine, I bought two big, 5lb bags of brown rice. They smell and taste a little off. Can I eat this?

Before my city went into lockdown, I went to an Indian market to stock up on rice, relevant because it came in a loosely woven old school plastic bag like burlap, and I thought there was a sealed bag in there-- yes to one, no to the other, neither airtight, and I foolishly sprayed down both bags with an aerosol lysol canister as soon as I got them into my house thinking they were sealed. Three weeks later, there's a weird, musty, mildewy, or is it bleach? taste and smell, both when cooked and uncooked. Can I salvage this rice, or will it make me and my loved ones sick?

posted by moonlight on vermont to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Best answer: I would not eat that. The weird smell is more significant than any other part of your story. If something literally doesn't pass the sniff test, don't second guess. Sorry about the wasted rice though if you think it's mildewed and not Lysol smelling, you should return it.
posted by nantucket at 11:25 PM on April 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Alright, ate half a cup, thought better of it, in the process of manually hurling it all back up again. Please do not comment telling me I or the dog who licked the curry bowl without any actual rice are going to die unless you truly believe it I'm already in some serious pandemic time solitary quarantine fear. Thank you, nantucket, for your words of wisdom.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 11:43 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Was this brown rice or basmati? Basmati rice normally smells musty- see this discussion. I wouldn't eat the bag that you sprayed with Lysol and wasn't sealed, though.
posted by pinochiette at 5:37 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Ah, no, returning things is not essential. You should contact the market where you bought it if the problem seems to be that the rice was rancid, but not if you think you poisoned your rice with Lysol. If you do contact them you should preferably do it by phone.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:39 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

You won't die, sounds like food poisoning. You'll be fine in a day or so.
posted by mekily at 5:47 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've had friends do similar things, end up with similarly bleachy-tasting rice, and come to the conclusion that the bag the rice comes in isn't totally impermeable. I have no idea if that's the explanation, but there does seem to be a pattern.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:22 AM on April 6, 2020

I've had rice prepared by friends that can only be described as tasting faintly of mothballs. It was fresh and prepared by diligent, careful cooks. But this doesn't sound like what you're experiencing.
posted by scruss at 10:22 AM on April 6, 2020