The Telangana State Civil Supplies Department has been getting a number of complaints regarding Plastic rice from various regions
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
In 2010, China witnessed the Wuchang rice scandal where officials unearthed a scam by companies who passed off ordinary rice as premium Wuchang rice by adding flavours into it. The term ‘Plastic rice’ first surfaced then. In 2011, a report by Korea Times said that fake rice made with a mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic was being sold there. And thus the term came into use.
Plastic rice has become a scary issue in Hyderabad. Telangana State Civil Supplies Department has been getting a number of complaints about the same. They proceeded to collect samples and have sent them to the department’s laboratory for analysis. “We are awaiting the test findings to initiate action”, Civil Supplies Commissioner CV Anand said.
Unfortunately, we do not know yet what the case of this ‘plastic rice’ is. It is has never been seized in the country before but there have been such demonstrations in the past also. With ‘fake news’ becoming a common currency in our vocabulary these days, we’ll have to wait and see if ‘fake rice’ is ‘fake news’ or not.