Is white rice bleached before being processed?

My dad is being especially paranoid of this. He claims to have read a paper years ago that said that the standard in rice processing was bleaching the rice to produce "whiter" rice.

I've been searching everywhere, and for only weird fringe sites, most of the main sites (Wikipedia, some other cooking websites) make no mention of bleach.

Is my father being paranoid about this? Or are his claims substantiated?

rice food-processing

Best Answer

No. It is not general practice to add bleach to rice. The brown rice bran is removed through mechanical processes. As to whether he should continue to indulge this worry...I'd be more concerned about [insert common American male problem here] before ammonia in rice. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138007/ This review has many free references in it. Should you want further peer-review reading, I can provide it.

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Quick Answer about "Is white rice bleached before being processed?"

No. White rice is often parboiled, but it is the cereal grain stripped of its hull through a milling/mechanical process not a chemical one.

How do they whiten rice?

To produce white rice, the bran layer and the germ are removed, leaving mostly the starchy endosperm. This process causes the reduction or complete depletion of several vitamins and dietary minerals.

Is basmati white rice bleached?

Is Basmati Rice Bleached? No, basmati rice is not traditionally bleached. The reason white basmati rice is white is that the bran has been hulled and removed. Removing the bran of the rice takes away some of the nutritional content, but it doesn't mean that basmati rice is unhealthy.

What is unprocessed rice?

Unprocessed rice will typically be beige in color, whereas processed rice will be white. Broadly speaking, rice can first be separated into three categories: Short, medium, or long grain. Short-grain rice has a short kernel with rounded edges, and long grain rice has a long kernel with pointed edges.

Is organic white rice processed?

Health Benefits of organic rice: Another great feature of organic food is that it is less processed. Rice loses its nutrients and fiber content when it is refined to remove the outer hull and husk. Organic food is made without the use of food additives like colorings, preservatives, flavoring etc.