I’ve already debunked one portion of this Blossom video, ‘Is your food fake or real? Find out with these easy tests at home!’ Part of this video contains the famous you can’t melt American cheese with a flame test and this proves it’s plastic, which is the one I debunked. Another part of the video is a test to see if your rice is adulterated with plastic pellets. Is this test real? Is there plastic in your rice?
There are a few things you should know about Blossom, which operates on YouTube under the name ‘blossom tv.’ Blossom is an online moniker used by First Media, which is basically a viral marketing company. They list their headquarters as being located in Irving, Texas, but all their principal officers are Indian and most of the videos on Blossom TV and on the Blossom Facebook page are based on online articles from India. This is important to the plastic rice story.
If you are in the United States, know that there is, and has been, no evidence of any plastic in any rice. That is, there has been no evidence of large pieces of plastic that resemble grains of rice. Microplastics are another issue. India, however, has a huge problem with food adulteration. Some of the things that food companies get up to in India will shock you, in fact, and make a few plastic pellets in rice look like child’s play.
Food Adulteration in India
For example, in India, it is fairly common to find powdered tea adulterated with textile dyes (that’s dyes meant for cloth), and for milk to be adulterated with urea to trick protein tests and also vegetable oils and sugar. Indian consumers have to be constantly vigilant and on the lookout for fake, well, everything. Dietary supplements…well, buy at your own risk. They may be labeled as a leading brand sold in the U.S. but actually be, at best, worthless junk and at worst, pure poison.
Test for Plastic Rice
In the rice testing part of the video, the rice grains are accompanied by other white particles and these particles turn clear when a pan containing the rice is heated. If your rice did contain plastic pellets, would this test work? Well, yes, it could. However, it’s not the test that is in question, this time, but the premise.
This ‘test’ is based on the fact that there were, in the past, actual and credible reports of large shipments of rice in India that contained paper pellets, sweet potato pellets, or, indeed, plastic resin. All of these were used to add weight to the shipment and thus increase its value. However, while the Indian government investigated, there is no evidence that any of this plastic rice ever made its way to consumers. If there were plastic pellets in rice, they would not be changed by boiling in water, although some consumers have claimed that they cooked this plastic ‘fake rice’ and saw it turn clear.
However, the Indian government did admit that rice has occasionally been adulterated with boric acid, which makes it appear shiner and a brighter white. Although this is rare, if such rice was cooked it may behave strangely and have a weird taste.
Most likely, the plastic bits that turned clear over direct heat (not boiling) in the Blossom video, were simply bought online. While you may not be able to find plastic pellets for hobbies, repairs, or temporary tooth fillings that are shaped like rice, you can literally buy fake rice made of plastic that is meant to be used for decoration, photography props, home staging, etc.
Like many such food myths, this is a case where the adulteration or modification of the food would probably prove more expensive than the food itself. Buying plastic pellets in bulk would probably not be a cost-effective way to increase the weight of a rice shipment, at least as part of a long-term practice.Â
Microplastics In Rice
While there is no evidence of “fake plastic rice” being put in packaged rice products sold in the U.S., there is evidence of microplastics in rice, along with other foods and many beverages. You will not be able to see these tiny particles with the naked eye. They contaminate rice and other foods due to manufacturing practices that use plastic parts in machinery. While I’ve long claimed you do not need to rinse modern rice before using it, rinsing rice can help remove some of this plastic. According to a study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, rinsing rice can remove 20 to 40% of microplastic particles.Â