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A little shock therapy is all you need to keep rice mould-free, say
researchers at Sanyo, Japan. Mould and bacteria can grow unchecked on untreated
rice, but the current protective fumigant, methyl bromide, is being phased out
as it’s an ozone depleter. Sanyo’s alternative is to zap a bin full of rice with
50 kilovolt pulses a hundred times a second. Just 15 minutes in the bin is
enough to kill 99 per cent of moulds, yeast and bacteria, the researchers
claim.