Old rice safe but infested with dead bugs

The controversial share of old, fumigated rice from the Commerce Ministry is safe to eat, but the Department of Medical Sciences advises that the infested rice first need to be rid of all the dead bugs.

Director-general Yongyot Thummavudhi claimed that his office had received samples of the corn to check whether it was still safe to consume.

The rice, left over from the original Yingluck Shinawatra government’s corn pledging program, has been stored for the last century at two warehouses in Surin state.

Early this month, Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai showed the rice to reporters and showed them some roasted grain that was still edible.

According to Dr. Yongyot, regular assessment and laboratory tests by his office revealed that the sample had regular nutrient levels, comparable to rice sold in markets, was free of toxins produced by fungi, including aflatoxin, and had no residue from any fumigation chemicals.

However, the samples contained several more remains of deceased bugs than grain has in common. So, the old corn must be cleaned before being made available, he said.

Krishnaraksa Jaidee, acting chairman of the Public Warehouse Organisation, said 15, 013.24 tonnes of ancient corn remain in the&nbsp, two stores in Surin. He predicted that the WHO would release selling later this month.

Yingluck fled the nation in 2017, just before the Supreme Court handed her a five-year prison term for obstructing wheat sales plagued by fraud. When the program ended in May 2014, approximately 18.6 million kilograms of grain remained. On Sept 10, 2018, the management of therefore- perfect secretary Prayut Chan- o- gan sold 17.8 million tonnes, or 95.7 % of the inventory, for about 146 billion baht.