Why should (or shouldn't) we wash rice before cooking?

Reasons to wash your rice:

1. Reduce/Control Starch levels

   • Often when you're cooking rice you want distinct grains of rice and for your rice to have texture. In the case of Chinese fried rice for example, you specifically want your rice grains to not stick to one another. If you're talking white rice especially, there will be a lot more loose starch that will form a thickish paste if if you don't rinse it away.

2. To clean out impurities

   • I imagine there was a time when there were a lot more impurities (dirt, dust, bugs, etc...). I don't know if that's necessarily the case these days with modern manufacturing. If you're concerned about your source, then this may be a factor for you. There's also the occasional random article that suggest rinsing to reduce levels of something like arsenic (see FDA warning on arsenic in rice)... I think 1. is your bigger factor here though.

Reasons to not wash your rice:

1. It removes nutrients.

   • This is true for fortified rice. See here for more information on the fortification process. Note, whole grain/brown rices are less often fortified (I want to say they're not fortified, but I actually don't know for sure). So it would depend on what kind of product you're buying and where it came from.

2. You actually want to keep the extra starch.

   • This is the case for things like risotto where the starch is what gives the dish it's creaminess. Serious Eats has a great article that talks about the process.

For Japanese (like me), our white rice is always thoroughly washed in cold water until the water runs clear. Steamed white rice is at the very core of most of our diets, and we take it really seriously. In fact, the Japanese word for "meal" and for "rice" are the same ("gohan").

American white rice (I think by law) is pre-washed then "fortified" (meaning that a dusting of vitamins is added), which is probably where the argument that "you are washing away nutrients" comes from.

Most white rice produced in the US is thoroughly washed then fortified. So, Americans don't usually wash white rice. It's fine if you do, though. Rice imported from other countries may not be either washed nor fortified. Look at the label for clues.

We almost always wash rice. Why?

1. If there's any bugs, it'll float. This is pretty important if you buy rice in bulk of any sort. A quick swish and dump would do here. This is the reason I got told that its done. Bugs icky.

2. If you don't want your rice clumping together. This is not a measure of stickiness - how sticky rice is depends on the content of a specific protein. I've had rice that was nice and chewey, and came out as a block. "Wash until it runs clear" is basically "Wash until you get all the accidentally created starch from processing out". In theory, I suppose you could pack rice precleaned, I guess.

Also, keep in mind that sometimes you DO want your rice to be sticky. For example, when you make sushi rolls, you want the rice to bind together. Search Google for "sticky rice" and you'll see that it's quite an art form just to get the rice to stick, while some other recipes or uses would find this stickiness to be a problem.

Unwashed. Sticky rice. Has more starch. Slightly under cook. Eat. this stays with you. So you can work till noon. Give you more energy Why many in Asia eat it that way. Washed rice. less starch. for light fluffy rice, fried rice. But in 2 hours you are hungry again. Unless oil added.