Alarm sounded over arsenic in baby rice

Levels of arsenic in rice formula for babies are worryingly high, according to an investigation published into products widely sold in British stores.

Scientists voiced their concern after testing 17 samples of three common brands of baby rice.

They said the results exposed a bad loophole in safety regulations in the European Union (EU) and the United States.

The arsenic they tested for was inorganic, meaning that it had no carbon content and thus most likely came from a geological source.

Arsenic occurs naturally in some soils and is a groundwater problem in numerous countries, notably Bangladesh. Rice plants, which are immersed in water, are especially susceptible to absorbing the arsenic as they grow.

The University of Aberdeen investigators in Scotland found arsenic levels ranging from 0.06 to 0.16 milligrams per kg in the samples of baby rice, with an average of 0.11 mg/kg per sample.

In the case of the sample that had the highest arsenic level, three servings per day would amount to six times more than the maximum permitted under EU and US laws.

In addition, a child may eat other rice-based products in the form of crackers, biscuits, puffed cereals, pasta, noodles and puddings, and this could in theory drive up arsenic ingestion.

"From the results presented here it is apparent that inorganic arsenic levels in baby rice should be of concern," said the authors, led by biochemist Andrew Meharg.

The paper, which appears in the journal Environmental Pollution, says that EU and US regulations are badly outdated, as the calculation for safe ingestion of inorganic arsenic is based on levels in drinking water, not in food.
[link to www.abc.net.au]