I would throw it out, but anything I toss that looks still edible my SO will take to the guys he knows who live in a tent under the bridge nearby. They will eat anything, including any stray dog that might happen upon them, so they probably wouldn’t mind a few bugs in their rice.
I’d throw it out, both because of the ick and to avoid further infestation. But I keep all grains and flours in airtight containers to avoid this issue.
Do you think the robins and other birds who are out hunting for bugs around churches and see rice say “Oh my GOD, there’s rice in my bugs!!!”
It wouldn’t bother me per se, I got used to having bugs in my food when I volunteered in Belize after college. But if it was an “active” infestation I’d probably through it out just to keep it from spreading throughout my pantry. Dead bugs probably wouldn’t bother me enough to pick up a new bag of rice however.
That’s how I see it. I wouldn’t eat the bugs… eww. Even if I have to toss 12 lbs of a Costco bag of rice, with how cheap it is a Costco, it’s only like throwing away 8 lbs.
See, this is the confusing part.
So I have a different husband? One who doesn’t cook up a batch of white rice to go with, say, pizza or fried chicken or such? I vaguely remember meals without rice, back when I was single and my family consisted only of white people…
Now, though, the rice cooker is by far the most used appliance in our kitchen, and in the top 5 in the house.
It happens, we’ll slide over to refritos, augratin potatoes, a lot of the rice will come in Hamburger helper (yeah yeah, it’s easy. ), and then we’ll go through a Pasta stage.
I’m a sticky sushi rice kinda guy myself, but costco doesn’t SELL that. The long grain rice gets eaten once a month or so, and the Basmati rice (another 25 lb bag. sigh), will probably last the rest of my life. I’m not much of a basmati rice person.
Shortly after reading this, I chucked most of an almost-new bag of bread flour after finding a mealworm. No question that it was going out immediately.