To wash or not to wash? Scientists have refuted the main culinary myth about rice

November 19, 10:22 Share:

The stickiness of rice does not depend on washing (Photo: pexels)

There has long been a debate in the culinary world: should you rinse rice before cooking? Recent research suggests that rinsing rice does not affect its stickiness, as cooks previously believed.

Cooks generally believe that rinsing rice reduces the amount of starch, which should make the grains less sticky.. However, according to new research conducted on three different types of rice, the effect of washing on stickiness was found to be negligible.

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Researchers compared glutinous rice, medium grain rice and jasmine rice by washing them different numbers of times.. The results showed that stickiness depends on the rice variety and not on washing.. Glutinous rice was the stickiest, while medium grain and jasmine were more crumbly.

It turned out that surface starch ( amylose), visible when rinsing, does not affect stickiness. Instead, another starch, amylopectin, which is leached from the rice grain during the cooking process, plays a critical role.

Thus, the decision to rinse grains or not depends on preferences and needs when preparing specific dishes.

However, it should be noted that rinsing the rice is an important step if you want to get rid of dust, insects and husk bits, especially in less thoroughly processed food environments.

Recent research also highlights the problem of microplastics in rice caused by the heavy use of plastic in the supply chain. Research suggests that raw rice may contain up to 20% plastic, and rinsing instant grains can reduce plastic levels by 40%. All this calls into question old culinary habits and highlights the relevance of the question of whether it is worth washing rice in modern food production conditions.

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