Rice, water and arsenic

Posted by Judith Hilton on August 30th 2007 in Science, safety and health

Andrew is in Scotland at the moment taking a couple of days leave so I'm blogging in his absence. I saw today's piece on BBC News online about water quality in the developing world and the particular problem of arsenic in water and subsequently in rice.

Arsenic at high levels can cause cancer; the metal is present naturally in soil, and is thought to leach into groundwater. If wells are not dug deep enough then it can be a real problem.

We also take the issue of arsenic seriously in the UK and in October 2006 and May of this year published surveys looking at the levels of particular metals in infant foods and formula.

We didn't find any cause for health concerns in this survey but we are looking to do more work and will be publishing a review of the scientific literature on arsenic in rice in the autumn.

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Arsenic, rice, water

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 02/10/2007 - 18:36

In my work trips to South East Asia I have been told that arsenic leaches upwards in the soil from sub-soil. Communities with high arsenic levels harvest, collect and burn (or feed to animals) every forth harvest from an affected field. This way they believe they are removing accummulated arsenic and will make the next 3 harvests safer to eat. I have not been able to verify whether this would be an effective risk management measure. However, knowledge of affected regions may enable FSA to target any planned surveillence programme.

In reply to a previous

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 10/09/2007 - 14:52

In reply to a previous comment. As I understand it one of the issues is that not all forms of arsenic are toxic to the same degree and there is no agreed test method that can differentiate between organic/inorganic arsenic (and that's not 'organic' as in organic foods!) - as a result there isn't an agreed Codex (international) or European level for arsenic in food. However, there is a national level for arsenic in water of 0.010mg/l (as total) and the Arsenic in Food Regulations 1959/831 (as amended) which sets a limit of 1mg/kg total for all foods. The recent reviews of infant foods conducted by FSA found levels in rice in the UK to be far lower than this figure - even the highest amount was only about 5th of the legal limit.

Toxicity

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 07/09/2007 - 22:15

There are sections of the population in the UK including all age groups with a dependancy on Rice and varied Rice products due to Coeliac Disease, gut problems or cultural dietary choice.

As well as a potential carcinogen, there is a question of neurodevelopmental toxicity of Arsenic amongst others. Though the FSA have published surveys on infant foods and formula, how might Arsenic in the food chain affect a developing foetus?

The problem of Arsenic in water used for irrigation, domestic consumption and rice has been of some concern for a number of years not only in Asia but in European rice as a cursory search of published research and reports would indicate.

Local cooking practices in some areas, for example, Bangladesh, appear to increase the levels of Arsenic present in the cooked rice. Not only is this slow poisoning a dreadful and apparently neglected state of affairs for the very vulnerable and poverty stricken population concerned, but what impact might this have on imported par-boiled rice or rice products from this and other countries which may have below limit levels of toxicity in the rice prior to cooking or processing in contaminated water?

Will the proposed review include details of methods and practice currently used to monitor levels of contaminents in the food chain within the EU as well as global imports and are they standardised yet as outlined by the FAO

Are the tests to be implemented in the country of origin or by the country importing and processing the food, at what point in the chain from field to table will the monitoring take place?

I look forward to reading the FSA response.

Toxins put into Food and Drink

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 05/09/2007 - 13:23

Why are we still being fed and watered with food and drink spiked with Aspartame. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure.