The Heat-And-Eat $3 Aldi Staple Customers Say Is 'Horrible'

Aldi is a great discount grocery store for some things, like Aldi dupes that are better than name brands, but there are admittedly a few products that aren't so great. Every now and then, store-brand items from the chain won't execute on their promises, and the quality of one particular heat-and-eat item has started to bother customers a bit. In early 2025, a Reddit user posted a thread about how their go-to microwaveable rice, the Earthly Grains 90 Second Microwaveable Jasmine Rice, has seemingly gone downhill.

They wrote, "Anyone else have a bad experience with these recently? ... The last several times we've bought them, they just smell really strongly of plastic. Been buying them for years and never had this issue before." Some users have noticed the same plastic smell or an odor reminiscent of nearly rancid oil, while others complained that the rice clumps up when removed from the bag. Other commenters mentioned that they switched grocery store brands altogether, instead opting for Trader Joe's frozen rice product. In the end, the original poster of the thread mentioned in a reply that they'd finally given up and switched to a miniature rice cooker, simply opting to cook rice from scratch instead.

At The Takeout, we've sifted through plenty of reviews to find out which grocery store brands of microwave rice are best, according to customers. The one we determined to have the most favorable rating is from Wellsley Farms, particularly its jasmine rice variety that's ready to eat after 90 seconds in the microwave. Customers are fans of its light texture and fresh taste once it's microwaved, plus its low price, since you can purchase it affordably at BJ's Wholesale.

Other microwaveable rice that ended up with high marks included Good & Gather's (Target's house brand) Cultivated Wild Rice packets, as well as Wegmans Organic Steamables Jasmine Rice. So if this easy-to-make grain is on your grocery list, maybe skip the one at Aldi and try branching out to different stores, as that version of heat-and-eat rice seems to have lost a bit of its fan base. Or, you could just make your own rice in an Instant Pot or rice cooker — the process is almost all hands-off anyway.