Enriched Rice

enriched rice Most polished rice milled in the United States is enriched with a dusting of iron, thiamine, and niacin. Some states require that any milled rice sold in that state be enriched. The process and the requirement date back to the 1930s, when the concern was that the population was not getting adequate nutrition. The American Rice Council advises that enriched rice should not be washed before using and should be cooked by steaming or by the absorption technique, rather than boiling, so the nutrients aren’t washed away. This advice runs counter to the practices of many people in the rice-eating world who wash rice to clean it and to improve the texture of their cooked rice. Having learned our rice-eating and rice-cooking habits in Asia, we too wash all our rice because we prefer the resulting texture; suit yourself.