Who is “Uncle Ben” and why does he “convert” rice?
“Converted” rice is converted from brown rice to white rice by partially cooking it before removing the bran from the rice. That gives you something that cooks and tastes more like white rice, but has some of the brown rice flavor and a lot of the nutrients of brown rice. There is no “Uncle Ben”. There’s “Uncle Ben’s”, a brand name. That, plus a painting done for marketing purposes, is everything there is to know about him. There’s no story, just marketing. Originally they picked the image of an elderly black man because of the association with black slaves and rice planting in the South, but they decided that was a little, well, racist. So they promoted him to “Chairman” earlier this year. Sources: http://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?
