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If you are planning to store large quantities of rice for duration best use vacuum sealing (jar or plastic bags), and perhaps consider putting in fridge or freezer. Brown and some other varieties of rice are prone to going rancid if kept too long.
Then there is the bug issue. Some can easily bore holes into plastic bags, in other cases the eggs were already inside when purchased (same with flour and other grains or things made from them), and given long enough sitting around those eggs will hatch. In fullness of time you have a bag full of squirming larvae then full grown bugs. If the latter get out they will infest your pantry, cupboards, house, etc..
As others have noted I would not keep any sort of grain on a basement floor unless stored in a rodent proof container or metal bin.
If you don't use rice for a long time it's not they go bad it's that they will get eaten up by bugs. Most uncooked rice have eggs of these rice bugs in them. Over time they will hatch and start multiplying. Soon your rice bag or jar will be covered with them if you don't consume in say 6 months+
I used to live in a warm, humid climate and had a lot of problems with bugs, even in herbs. I got into the habit of tossing anything that might appeal to bugs--rice, pasta, flour, etc.--into the freezer for a couple of weeks. That killed any new bugs and bug eggs.
I kept whole wheat flour in the fridge after some got rancid.
Ants even ate most of a boullion cube, foil wrapper and all. Yikes, bugs--they're everywhere.
Most packaged grains and beans have a best-used-by date on them, that is one year after harvest. The amino acids in the protein will slowly degrade with time, even if they are stored under the best conditions. Reputable grocery stores will monitor their stock and move it out before the expiration date. I check out all these items before I buy. Sometimes, I find bags of beans or grains at cut-rate stores, that have no expiration dates, so I don't buy them.
Buying large amounts of these staples and storing them in large barrels for years, is not a good idea. Keeping them cool, free of moisture and exposure to oxygen is good, but it will not prevent the internal breakdown of amino acid molecules over time. There's a good reason why the food industry has established standards for labeling these products with the best-used-by dates.
As I wrote about a month and a half ago (see post #9 in this thread: https://www.city-data.com/forum/food...ly-expire.html ): I inadvertently used rice in late March 2020 that had a "best by" date of January 5, 2011 ... so it was more than 9 years past its "best by" date and it was TOTALLY fine. Smelled and looked fine, cooked normally, tasted great.
Honestly, if I'd seen the "best by" date before I cooked it, I probably WOULDN'T have cooked it ... but I didn't see it. (Well, I didn't even look -- the container had been at the back of my pantry but I don't usually keep things THAT long, not even pasta or rice!)
And again, it was TOTALLY FINE. It had been in a screw-top container the whole time so no problems with pests or anything disgusting like that ... it was just, you know, old. But it had not gone "bad" by any normal definition of the word.
If you don't feel like reading the article, with the exception of fresh foods like unfrozen meat, the dates are based on when the quality of the food (appearance, taste) is guaranteed, it has little to do with food safety or nutritional value.
Some canned meats like Keystone (hard to find without getting robbed nowadays) don't even have an expiration date on them. If the can is intact and the meat doesn't smell weird, it's probably safe to eat. Similarly, MREs don't have expiration dates on them.
The only foods with expiration dates that I've come across that really matter are canned tomato and milk products. In a hot/humid environment like where I live you don't want to push more than a year or two past the date.
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