A city-based reader yesterday handed Tuoi Tre a sample of rice she considers fake and which could be made of plastic.

“On February 17, I bought 1 kg of rice for VND10,500 from a peddler. The rice is slim and in ivory yellow. There were no broken grains in the rice.”

After cooking half a kilogram of the rice the same day, she found the cooked rice grains were just a bit larger than the uncooked ones and were separated with each other.

“The cooked rice grains could not be crushed … and after I held them tightly in my hands, they rebounded elastically as if made of rubber.”

The cooked rice was not sweet-smelling as boasted by the vendor. However, one day after it was cooked and put in normal temperature condition, it still did not get stale or change its color.

Plastic rice?

After examining the rice, Mr. Dao Quang Hung, an official from Horticulture Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, commented, “This rice looks very strange. I have never seen it before. However, we need to perform some physical and chemical analyses on the rice before concluding whether it is counterfeit rice or not."

“The grain length of the strange rice is about 10 mm, 3-4 mm longer than the normal rice, while in terms of width, the strange rice is much thinner. The best rice in Vietnam now is the 5 percent broken rice, while the strange rice has no broken grain,” he said.

In addition, unlike normal rice, the strange rice is totally transparent and has no opaque ‘seed’ in it, he added.

Pending a conclusion from relevant agencies about this odd rice, Mr. Hung warned consumers not to buy or consume it.

Source: Tuoi Tre

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