ARLINGTON, VA – They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the rice industry would rather the assorted vegetables, legumes, and pulses pretending to be rice just waved and stayed in their aisle. Rice pretenders have been infecting U.S. grocery stores for a few years, and
The Rice Stuff team looked at the issue for
Episode 45, “Imposters Among Us,” available now.
Chris Galen, senior vice president of membership services and strategic initiatives for the National Milk Producers Federation, joined the podcast to talk about the pretender issue his industry has been facing for decades.
“Several years ago, I became aware of rice pretenders when I was fooled by a television commercial,” said Michael Klein, podcast co-host. “After the shock wore off, I called Chris to ask him how milk was tackling the issue of all the plant and nut-based drinks that were invading the dairy case. He was very generous with his time and thoughts, and really a lot of what USA Rice has done has followed in the footsteps of the milk producers.”
Galen said the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is failing to enforce not only its own regulations, but the will of Congress when it comes to some butter alternatives.
“In theory, milk is on a stronger footing because they have an FDA Standard of Identity (SOI) and rice does not,” said show co-host Lesley Dixon. “We have repeatedly asked for an SOI based on existing international standards – that rice is ‘whole or broken kernels from the oryza sativa plant,’ but FDA has been slow to act, and if they aren’t enforcing existing SOIs, we’re at a bit of a loss.”
Klein said this may sound petty to outsiders, but it’s a serious issue of consumer confusion and nutritional “bait-and-switch.”
“The way these companies market, package, and promote their products, it is quite clear they are trying to fool consumers while riding rice’s coattails as one of the most widely-accepted, delicious grains in the world,” he said. “At the very least they should call themselves ‘riced cauliflower’ or ‘extruded lentils,’ or whatever they are. Rice is a grain, not a shape.”
USA Rice Director of Domestic Promotion Cameron Jacobs then joined the podcast for live on-air taste testing of some popular rice pretenders. It did not go well.
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The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.