You will never guess the reason! Why you really need to wash rice before cooking

An integral part of cooking rice for many housewives is rinsing it. They do this to reduce the stickiness of the product and make the grains crumbly. But this action should be done for a completely different reason.

The FoodOboz editorial team will tell you what happens to rice during rinsing. And also what affects the stickiness of the cereal.

Why people used to rinse rice

Pre-washing rice reduces the amount of starch released from the rice grain. This can be seen in the cloudy water that forms after the cereal has been in it. Free starch is formed on the surface of the rice grain during the milling process.

It is recommended to rinse rice for dishes that require a whole, crumbly grain. However, for risotto, paella, and rice puddings, where a sticky, creamy effect is desired, washing is avoided.

Is there any evidence that washing rice makes it less sticky?

If you take different types of rice, such as glutinous rice, medium-grain rice, and jasmine rice, and rinse them, it will not affect their stickiness. This is because the stickiness is not due to the surface starch (amylose), but rather to another starch called amylopectin, which is leached from the rice grain during cooking. The amount of leaching varied for different types of rice grains.

So it is the rice variety, not the washing, that is crucial for stickiness. Glutinous rice was the most sticky, while medium-grain rice and jasmine rice were less sticky and also harder.

Why do you need to rinse rice?

One of the reasons is to rinse off the residue of various dusts as well as insects. You need to do this because you don't know the conditions under which the rice was packaged.

Also, due to the intensive use of plastic in the food supply chain, plastic has been repeatedly found in rice. And the washing process removes up to 20 percent of plastic from raw rice.

Regardless of the packaging (plastic or paper), rice contains the same level of microplastics. Instant rice has four times the amount of plastic. If you rinse your instant rice beforehand, you can reduce the amount of plastic by 40 percent.