I went through a lot of my preps this weekend, and I found that about 28# of rice I had vacuum sealed was “puffy.” Not the kernels themselves, but the vacuum was gone, but the bags were intact. I’m worried about botulism, and have pulled them from my preps for now. What would cause the rice to outgas? Has anyone else seen this before? I was careful when I packaged the rice, and it looks like it was only the batches I did in 7/09 and 11/09 so far. All the rest of the vacuum sealed rice (about another 30#) seems fine, including some bags from those batches. All the other vacuum-sealed items like beans, lentils, corn, dehydrated fruit, etc. are all still under a vacuum.
Please leave a comment if you know what’s going on!
Tags: preps
I have noticed the same on some bags of rice, when I dumped the rice into a bucket and tested the bag it had dozens of tiny pin pricks in it with water flowing out, I think they were moved in a stack mixed with bags of beans, perhaps the rubbing on the beans caused some of the sharp edges on broken grains of dried rice to poke through?
I fed the rice to the chickens beacuse the open ones were transported in the back of a truck and I did not want any deisel dust or lead on the grain my family was eating.
You can only get botulism from meats.
I did no know that, thanks for the info!
WARNING! Botulism can be contracted from other sources than meat! This is copied from the official CDC website.
Many cases of botulism are preventable. Foodborne botulism has often been from home-canned foods with low acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn and is caused by failure to follow proper canning methods. However, seemingly unlikely or unusual sources are found every decade, with the common problem of improper handling during manufacture, at retail, or by consumers; some examples are chopped garlic in oil, canned cheese sauce, chile peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice, and baked potatoes wrapped in foil. In Alaska, foodborne botulism is caused by fermented fish and other aquatic game foods. Persons who do home canning should follow strict hygienic procedures to reduce contamination of foods, and carefully follow instructions on safe home canning including the use of pressure canners/cookers as recommended through county extension services or from the US Department of Agriculture. Oils infused with garlic or herbs should be refrigerated. Potatoes which have been baked while wrapped in aluminum foil should be kept hot until served or refrigerated. Because the botulinum toxin is destroyed by high temperatures, persons who eat home-canned foods should consider boiling the food for 10 minutes before eating it to ensure safety. Wound botulism can be prevented by promptly seeking medical care for infected wounds and by not using injectable street drugs. Most infant botulism cases cannot be prevented because the bacteria that causes this disease is in soil and dust. The bacteria can be found inside homes on floors, carpet, and countertops even after cleaning. Honey can contain the bacteria that causes infant botulism so, children less than 12 months old should not be fed honey. Honey is safe for persons 1 year of age and older.
I wound up tossing all the suspect rice, and 1# of elbow macaroni from 2009 just to be safe. Thank you for the information.