Storing Brown Rice

**UPDATED**

Brown rice has a higher oil/moisture content, increasing the risk of botulism, which is why you shouldn't dry pack it (using the oxygen absorber packets). This also makes it very susceptible to oxidation and soon goes rancid, only giving you about a 6 month shelf life.

Freezing &/or refrigerating your brown rice will greatly extend it's shelf life.

You can also buy brown rice that has been packaged in air tight containers with an "inert nitrogen atmosphere" which gives you a longer shelf life.

From the research I've done, it's not an easy or feasible solution to try and use the nitrogen method to store brown rice long term on your own. If you want a shelf life longer than 1 year, your best bet would be to buy it prepackaged in an air tight container. Doing my research and asking all of the food storage gurus that I know, this has been the general consensus;

Do not buy more brown rice than you can use in 1 year.

If you choose to dry pack it, use small containers (1/2 gallon P.E.T.E. work great).

Once you open a container, keep it in the freezer.

Do not eat brown rice that has been dry packed for longer than 1 year.