Why Does My Rice Smell Bad? (Can I Eat It?)

I love rice for its versatility, but sometimes, for reasons beyond my comprehension, I just can’t stand the smell. After consulting a master cook (AKA mom) I learned that smelly rice can be the result of a variety of factors for both cooked and uncooked rice.

Cooked rice may smell bad because you’re having issues with your water such as sulfur compounds, spoilage due to bacterial growth (bacillus cereus), being covered in starch dust that isn’t rinsed off before cooking, or pungent strains of rice such as brown rice, which has a very nutty smell that you may not be familiar with.

For uncooked rice, this includes it being rancid from not being stored in a dry, cool place, having chemical contaminants leftover from harvesting, or storing your rice in non-food grade plastic bins resulting in plastic particles & smells seeping into the rice.

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How Do I Get Rid of Rice Smell?

Depending on what type of rice you are cooking, your kitchen may harbor a rice odor after you are done cooking it. If you are unlucky and burn your rice in the process of cooking, this can also smell pretty nasty. Here are a few ways to get rid of the smelly rice odor.

Kitchen Smells Heavily of Rice?

If you are cooking a pungent type of rice and don’t want your kitchen to smell like it after, then take a saucepan and fill it with 3 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 cup of water. Place it on your stovetop and bring the water to a boil for several minutes. Allow the steam to permeate the kitchen and neutralize the rice odor.

Burnt Rice & Now It Smells Bad?

If you have burnt rice and want to remove the smell, carefully scoop out the unburnt portion and place them into a mixing bowl. Lay either the outer skins of an onion or a piece of white bread over the rice and then cover the bowl with a lid.

Let the rice sit for several minutes and the burnt smell will be absorbed into the bread or onion skins. If your rice burns before it is finished cooking, repeat the same steps but use raw potato slices instead.

Slow Cooker Smells Like Rice After Being Cleared Out.

If you cook a lot of rice at home in your slow cooker, you may notice that the slow cooker smells like rice for a while even after the rice is removed from the appliance. The easiest way to get rid of this smell is with a vinegar and water solution. Here are the steps to this solution.

The first thing you are going to want is some white vinegar. Take 1 cup of vinegar and add it to 3 cups of water.
- Pour this mixture into your slow cooker and turn the slow cooker to high.
- Place the lid on top and leave until the mixture is boiling.
- Once it starts to boil, turn the slow cooker off and leave it to cool down.
- Once it is cool enough to handle, thoroughly wash, and rinse the ceramic insert. The rice odor should be gone.

How Can I Make My Rice Smell Better?

As long as you aren’t cooking with rice that has gone bad and just don’t like the actual smell of rice, then there are ways that you can make it smell better. A lot of these methods will also help the rice taste better and it may prevent you from receiving comments from others who also don’t like how your rice cooking typically smells.

Consider cooking your rice in stock such as chicken, vegetable, or beef to help with the smell of the rice. You can either use a stock cube and add it to the water that you are boiling your rice in or substitute it entirely for the water. Just make sure to add double the amount of stock for the amount of rice you have.

You can always cook your rice with spices and aromatics. Using spices like cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, cloves, coriander, ginger, garlic, cumin, and turmeric tends to make rice smell extremely good. You can always purchase a spice blend from your local grocer if you do not want to spend a lot on individual spices. A five-spice powder also works well with brown rice and is typical in Chinese dishes. It contains star anise, fennel, and Szechuan peppercorns.

If you don’t want to cook your rice in stock or with a lot of spices, you can switch to a different type of rice that is more aromatic like jasmine or basmati rice types.

If you are not rinsing your rice before putting it in your pot with water to boil, then start doing this. When rice is packed and travels great distances, some of the rice can get crushed and pulverized in transit, coating the rice with indigestible starch. This can make it smell terrible if you do not rinse it off.

If you prefer sticky rice and thus prefer to not rinse your rice before cooking, you can try adding a small amount of vinegar to the rice as it cooks. Approximately 1-2 tbsp per cup of uncooked rice should help.

What Happens If You Eat Spoiled Rice?

When rice spoils, it grows a bacteria called bacillus cereus, which produces a toxin that is harmful to the body. The result of ingesting this toxin is food poisoning, causing nausea, upset stomach, and diarrhea.

If you eat spoiled rice, you may be able to lessen some of the symptoms of food poisoning by avoiding food for a few hours, drinking plenty of water, then slowly easing yourself back into food with something bland and easy on the stomach, like unsalted crackers or bananas.

Does Rice Go Bad Easily in a Slow Cooker?

No, it does not go bad easily unless there is human error or a malfunction.

While it is more common to cook rice in a rice cooker, on the stove, or in the microwave, you can also cook it in a slow cooker. As with any cooking medium, your rice will go bad if you do not have the right cooking temperature, if there are scratches in your appliance’s ceramic insert, or if it has been left at room temperature for too long.

This means that rice will go bad regardless of what appliance you are using if any of the above is true. To help prevent your rice from going bad in your slow cooker, try following these general tips.

Don’t unplug your slow cooker or turn it off after your rice is done cooking. Doing so will cause your rice to sit at room temperature which causes bacterial growth. This will spoil your rice.
When your rice is done cooking, keep your slow cooker on the “warm” setting as this will keep the rice at an internal temperature between 165° Fahrenheit and 200° Fahrenheit, discouraging any bacterial growth. Please consult your slow cooker’s manual to confirm that your slow cooker’s warm setting falls within this range.

Inspect your slow cooker for any dents or scratches in the ceramic insert, as bacteria can gather there and spread throughout the slow cooker, ruining your rice. If you find dents or scratches in your slow cooker, you should replace the inner ceramic insert or purchase a new slower cooker.

Try not to lift the lid when cooking your rice or when leaving it on the warm setting, as cool air will seep in potentially bringing the top portion of the rice into the temperature danger zone [1].

If you have had previous spoilage of rice due to bacterial growth, bacteria may remain behind and spoil future batches. If this is happening, take the ceramic dish out of the outer heating element and wash with 1 part bleach and 9 parts water. Wash thoroughly and then rinse with cold water. If this does not work, you will need to purchase a replacement ceramic insert or a new slow cooker.

What Does Bad Rice Look Like in a Slow Cooker?

If your rice has an “off-color” to it, a film to it, or it looks to be slimy, then it has gone bad. If the grains look darker in color, are extremely hard/crunchy, or have crumbled into pieces, then it has gone bad. Also, take a quick sniff of it, if there is an unpleasant smell coming from it, it has gone bad.