Why Are Cotton Balls Placed in Bags of Rice?

The other day when we popped open a big bag of rice and dumped it into the plastic container we store it in at home, we did a double-take.

Sitting in the rice, was a small 1-inch cotton ball.  It was clean, in good shape. But we were a little puzzled.

Perhaps some of you knew this already, but add moisture removal and preservation to the already long list of what you can use cotton balls for.

According to what we found, although most rice bags are airtight, they're not vacuum sealed. The air inside, depending upon environment, can produce condensation, moisture, which doesn't work well with the grains. Nobody wants to open a bag find it's already sprouted.

So, we left the cotton ball inside. Apparently it's worked so far.  None of the rice we've ever stored has gone bad.  But this was the first time we'd ever noticed the cotton ball.

You learn something new every day!