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Health

Big Rice Is Very Mad About Cauliflower Rice

It's concerned about a "proliferation in the marketplace of 'rice pretenders.'"
Image: Helen Rushbrook/Stocksy

First the dairy industry made a stink about nut milks calling themselves milk, and now the rice industry is threatening to wage war over cauliflower rice, a soggy favorite of people following Paleo, ketogenic, and plain old low-carb diets.

"Only rice is rice, and calling 'riced vegetables' 'rice,' is misleading and confusing to consumers," Betsy Ward, president of industry lobby USA Rice, said in a statement earlier this month. "We may be asking the FDA and other regulatory agencies to look at this."

The release noted that the FDA "has regulatory authority over not just statements of nutritional value, but food names and categories—something the rice industry has a growing interest in with the proliferation in the marketplace of 'rice pretenders.'" Those dastardly rice fakers!

Just like no one confuses zucchini noodles with actual noodles, no one mistakes cauliflower rice for regular rice. Big Rice is just mad that people want to eat more vegetables and fewer grains, whatever the consequences for their taste buds—and their farts.

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