No health risks in locally produced rice: JECFA

The chemical contaminants in Sri Lanka’s rice are far below the tolerable level and therefore there is no health risk in consuming it, experts said yesterday.

Concerns were

ex- pressed during the past few months that local rice was contaminated with the heavy metal known as ‘Cadmium’ and as such posed a health risk to consumers.

However, after carrying out extensive research and experiments, the Horticultural Crop Research and Development Institute said the cadmium content in locally produced rice was below the ‘provisional tolerable level’ as determined by the Joint Expert Committee for Food Additives (JECFA).

JECFA is jointly administered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It has developed principles for safety assessment of chemicals in foods that are consistent with current thinking on risk assessment having taken into account the development in toxicology and other relevant sciences.

The Horticultural Crop Research and Development Institute’s Sectional Head Dr. Priyantha Weerasekara said a kilo of rice contained only 80 micrograms of cadmium, and therefore was quite safe.

“The individual rice con- sumption is 2.25 kilos a week. This works out to 180 micrograms of cadmium. The provisional tolerable level for weekly intake as determined by the JECFA is 348 micrograms. Therefore, there is no risk in the consumption of local rice,” he said.

It is not unusual to find heavy metals such as lead and cadmium accumulated in the soil because of various reasons such as the use of agrochemicals in fertiliser. But such toxic chemicals are mostly concentrated in the stems, branches and leaves.

“It is found to a much lesser extent in grains. Where rice is concentred the chemicals are concentered in the outer peel of grains.

Concentration in rice is further diluted during husking and polishing at rice mills,” Dr. Weerasekara said.