<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> This was posted on the list on Feb 9 (2001-93) as part of a summary on Chinese food: >>Chinese food is unreliable because the younger generation sometimes >>uses flour in their sauces, sometimes, even in the light sauces but >>most of all because, by law, all white rice, east of the Mississippi, >>must be enriched, and it is enriched by spraying with a grain, >>sometimes using barley. * * * * * * * * * * Because I have problems with rice, I wondered if it was related to gluten intolerance. It doesn't seem to be. These are replies I received re: my question on jasmine rice: Jasmione rice SHOULD be a variety of rice...however, fyi, rice is coated with talc and that's what may be causing your problems. You can buy organic, unsprayed rice in health food stores. Regardless of kind of rice, rinse it until the water runs perfectly clean, then soak in water for about thirty min before cooking to soften the grain. An easy way to cook rice is to cook it the way restaurants do...in a large pot of boiling water...as if it were pasta. Cooks in about 10 to 15 min... ******* It is just a rice variety, there are literally hundreds of varieties of rice. It is supposed to be "aromatic", due to some natural flavor it has. It is not treated with anything to make it "jasmine". ******* Real Jasmine rice is naturally aromatic. If this rice disagrees with you try Basmati rice, which is Indian in origin. ******* I have found there is corn syrup added to a lot of those rices that are bought from Chinese and Korean stores. We buy sweet glutinous brown rice from the Vienamese market. If you can't eat rice, have you tried millet. We use it just like rice and as bread crumbs and for just about everything. Millet is very good. ******** I have corresponded with Mahatma rice about their enrichment process. Both the white and Jasmine rices are enriched using cornstarch, not barley. Jasmine is a variety of rice, not a flavoring. Whoever wrote that "all rices are enriched with barley" is wrong. ******** Jasmine refers to the species of rice. So named because its scent is jasmine-like. However, I have heard (and only heard, never confirmed) that aromatic rices from Asia might be treated with talc. Again, only a rumour so far, and NOT confirmed. You should, though, rinse any basmati or jasmine rice before cooking it. ********* Jasmine rice has a natural aroma of its own, but some brands might have added other ingredients, for all I know, and contamination is always an issue. If the Thai rice traveled in the same shipping lot with wheat flour, for example, and they were not in carefully sealed packages, flour dust could have contaminated the rice. I know that both bulk flours and bulk grains like rice can be packaged in cloth bags, and I've seen flour dust settle even beneath poorly sealed paper bags, so this is a possibility. Not all enriched rice is treated with barley. Uncle Ben's now guarantees all their plain rices to be gf, including the enriched, right on the label. They will not guarantee any of their seasoned rices. "Enriched" is like "modified starch": you have to ask the manufacturer before you know if it is gf or not. It could be either. ******** I doubt very much that enriched rice has barley sprayed on it. Enriched rich has added nutrients (all gf) - no barley. If there is barley on the rice, it would have to be listed in the ingredients. Jasmine rice is a type of rice, like long grain, basmatti, and many, many other types. All just plain gluten free rice.