Vijayawada: The rumours of ‘plastic rice’ that have been circulating have had an inevitable impact on restaurants and eateries serving rice, as customers have been avoiding eating out.
Restaurants and rice traders in the city have been explaining to the public that since there are sufficient stocks of rice and at cheap prices in Andhra Pradesh, there is no reason for importing spurious rice.
Despite this, biryani outlets have seen sales plunging. The food court at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium has seen poor sales in the last five days and stalls have stopped selling biryani since there is no demand for it.
“Rumours of plastic rice have collapsed our market. Even regular customers suspect the quality of rice we use. We have offered discounted rates, but no one is buying biryani. The government must take necessary measures to overcome these rumours,” says Shabi Ul Hassan who owns a food outlet. Rice traders find the rumours unbelievable.
“Andhra Pradesh is considered to be the rice bowl of India and we have production sufficient for the next three or four years. The cost of rice is cheaper than the cost of plastic rice. There is no chance of plastic rice being sold in the state,” says the secretary of the Rice Traders Association, Konijeti Prasad.
He admitted, though, that monitoring of rice mills has decreased in recent times and some second quality rice is reaching the markets.
Food safety officials are checking hotels and rice shops across the city. “There is no need to panic about plastic rice in the state. We have conducted searches and nothing was found. One can easily identify plastic rice by mixing rice starch in tincture of iodine solution. The iodine solution turns blue if it is rice,” says regional food safety officer Purnachandra Rao.
