Dunnes Stores recalled bags of rice aimed at families from shop shelves due to insect contamination.

The Food Safety Authority today said that the 1kg bag of its ‘my family favourites’ Easy Cook Rice is being removed from shop shelves due to the presence of rice weevils in some packs.

Rice weevils measure between two and three millimetres and are reddish brown in colour.

Female rice weevils lay around 300 to 400 eggs in their lifetime. They lay their eggs inside rice grains where larvae feed from until they are fully grown and emerge.

They are not known to cause any direct harm to humans.

A spokesperson for the FSAI said that even if the rice weevils did no harm to consumers’ health, it was not acceptable to have them in products and they could carry other contamination.

The contaminated packs originated in the Netherlands and have a batch code 14 122 and a best before date of 02/05/2016.

Dunnes Stores have advised customers who have purchased the rice to return the product to their local store.

Online Editors