please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message lotus foods type private genre natural foods ; heirloom rice ; sri rice founded 1995 founder ken lee ; caryl levine headquarters richmond u.s. slogan rice is life website lotusfoods.com lotus foods is a richmond california based company that focuses on importing handcrafted rice from small family farms to the united states . the company was founded in 1995 by caryl levine and kenneth lee . their first and most popular product is forbidden rice . contents 1 history 2 products 2.1 forbidden rice 3 awards and recognition 4 references history edit the company was founded in 1995 by caryl levine and kenneth lee two years after they took a marketing research trip to china where they were served a bowl of black rice something they never heard about before . 1 2 products edit since their formation in 1995 the company has added about 12 different kinds of heirloom rice from locations such as china bhutan bangladesh cambodia indonesia and madagascar to their product line . citation needed they also offer forbidden rice flour 3 as well as kaipen a laotian snack made of algae and sesame seeds . citation needed forbidden rice edit forbidden rice is lotus foods trademarked name for a strain of chinese black rice chinese ; pinyin h i m which is considered to be both food and medicine in china . 4 forbidden rice has a dark purple color because it is rich in anthocyanins and antioxidants . awards and recognition edit lotus foods has won multiple awards for their products as well as for their involvement in sri rice . 5 verification needed in 2008 they were invited as panelists to discuss food security and poverty at the clinton global initiative alongside madeleine albright and representatives for the bill & melinda gates foundation . 6 7 in 2009 they were awarded nutrition business journal s environment and sustainability award for their sri related work done in conjunction with cornell university s sri global marketing partnership . 8 lotus foods forbidden rice won the prestigious national association for the specialty food trade awards for outstanding product line and outstanding food service product . verification needed references edit http www.lotusfoods.com farmersterroir ourmission.aspx el cerrito focus for the love of rice . ny times fabricant florence 2001 01 10 . rice flour a versatile rainbow . the new york times . retrieved 2010 05 11 . black forbidden rice . http www.cooksinfo.com black forbidden rice . external link in website help ; missing or empty url help ; access date requires url help lotus foods awards & recognition . clinton global initiative poverty alleviation food security and poverty . video of clinton global initiative panel poverty alleviation food security and poverty . nutrition business journal 2009 environment and sustainability award lotus foods . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lotus foods & oldid 701601054 categories organic foodricehidden categories cs1 errors external linkspages using web citations with no urlpages using citations with accessdate and no urlarticles needing additional references from march 2012all articles needing additional referencesarticles with a promotional tone from september 2014all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2012articles containing chinese language textall pages needing factual verificationwikipedia articles needing factual verification from february 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 25 january 2016 at 14 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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