Nigeria has confiscated 2.5 tonnes of “plastic rice” smuggled into the country by unscrupulous businessmen, the customs service says.

Note how the nanny state disparages the business by calling them unscrupulous just for providing an alternative that the nanny state doesn’t like. As usually the nanny state wants to impose its opinion on what is good food on everyone.

Whoever made this fake rice did an exceptionally good job – on first impression it would have fooled me. When I ran the grains through my fingers nothing felt out of the ordinary.

But when I smelt a handful of the “rice” there was a faint chemical odour. Customs officials say when they cooked up the rice it was too sticky – and it was then abundantly clear this was no ordinary batch.

They’ve sent a sample to the laboratories to determine exactly what the “rice” is made of.

They are also warning the public not to consume the mystery foodstuff as it could be dangerous.

Why do nanny states continue to act as though people don’t know what they should eat? They continue to act as though we need nanny states protecting us from harmful products and food when people just want to be free to buy unsafe food if that is what they want.

Update: Artificial food intended for display only, say Chinese manufacturers:

The artificial food products are popular with restaurants to display menu choices as they always look fresh and never rot. Artificial rice is made of PVC, a white, brittle plastic.

See, once again the Nanny State was being foolish. Now, I suppose some people might say the bags should be properly labeled to avoid people making foolish assumptions but why would we want to make things easy and avoid funny misunderstandings?

Related: Nanny State Shouldn’t Have Food Service Workers Use Safe Health Practices – Citizens Don’t Need Nanny State Deciding What Food is Safe to Eat