Are You Eating Rice Or Plastic?

Imagine eating a bowl of plastic beads for a meal. This is what the guests at a hotel in Saroornagar experienced when they were served plastic rice. Multiple videos of the incident on social media platforms are breaking the internet with people voicing their concerns with the fake rice.

The incident is not the first to happen in the past week. A police complaint was also filed in the Charminar area of Hyderabad for a similar issue where the complaint cited that multiple outlets are selling what is being dubbed as plastic rice.

Soon to come under the scanner of the Food and Civil Supplies Department were outlets in Yousufguda and then Meerpet. Samples of cooked rice and stocks at the grocery stores have been seized and sent for qualitative analysis to the lab.

'Plastic rice' is made of mixed potatoes and industrial synthetic resin. It can cause great damage to the body if consumed daily erroneously.

Particularly, this rice can harm the digestive tract, upset your stomach and the chemicals can be hazardous for your body.

The complainant, Ashok, says that his family had been complaining of ailment since the past couple weeks and the doctor was unable to identify any cure for their suffering.

"The children suffered loose motions, all had gastric problems. Medicines and doctor were not able to cure as we continued to eat this. Now we have realised what is wrong,'' he says.

The family was shocked to discover that the rice, when rolled into balls could bounce as if made from rubber!

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to distinguish this rice from the regular one, unless you cook it. One way to know is to check if the soup of the plastic rice has a film of plastic over the top.

When Telugu TV journalist Indrasen rolled the biryani that he had bought in Saroornagar into a ball, he found that it bounced with a thud. After complaining to the outlet, he was beaten up. He then went to the police. "I was alone at home. So I bought biryani and took it home for dinner. But somehow it felt different. When I rolled the biryani rice, it bounced and made a sound. I went back and complained at the shop. They attacked me," he says.

Videos that have surfaced over the internet also show polythene bags being inserted into a machine and noodle like plastic-sticks emerging from the other end. These sticks are then cut into fine rice. There is news that this rice is of Chinese origin as incidents like these also emerged in Chinese media previously. While the incident has created scare and anger among people, nothing has been authoritatively established as lab reports are awaited.

Reports of price gouging and a higher price of plastic rice add more confusion to the story as this rules out the possibility of manufacturers resorting to low-quality plastic rice to boost sales.

But do check your next meal of rice before you take a bite.
 

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