Edible rice paper is not rice paper

These rice wafers are also used in the kitchen, for example for spring rolls or dumplings. The rice wafers, which usually consist of a mixture of a large amount of tapioca starch and a smaller amount of rice flour and salt, are soaked in lukewarm water and then drained before further processing. Edible rice wafers are available in many Asian grocery stores.

The material commonly referred to as rice paper, on the other hand, is a collective term that has been used to refer collectively to several paper-like materials from East Asia, such as China paper, Xuan paper, Japan paper, Hanji and Tibetan paper, made from various plants.

In another context, rice paper refers to thinly peeled, dried pulp of the rice paper tree (Tetrapanax papyrifer). It is a leaf-like "paper" material and was widely used at the end of the 19th century in Guangdong China, as a support medium for gouache paintings.

There is also a paper made of rice straw, this is a very coarse, cheap paper - namely straw paper. However, this paper has nothing in common with the term "rice paper".