Following last week’s report that 44.4% of rice tested during a food safety inspection in Guangzhou contained excess amounts of cadmium, three rice mills located in Youxian County in Zhuzhou City  (Hunan) are now being investigated, according to reports by Xinhua via Shanghai Daily.

Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration said that tainted rice and rice products had been found in two local university cafeterias and two restaurants. After tracing the suppliers, the authorities found that five of the eight contaminated batches originated from Youxian County. The other three contaminated batches came from Hengyang, in Hunan and Dongguan in Guangdong.

In Youxian County, samples of rice stored in the three mills were then sent to the provincial quality inspection agency, while the mills were ordered to recall their products and suspend operations, according to the county government. Apparently, the mills were operating legally and all the tainted rice had been collected from local farmers.

As both Zhuzhou and Hengyang are industrial cities located on the Xiangjiang River, experts have speculated that cadmium found in the rice is a result of the rice fields’ soil being contaminated by heavy metals from industrial water pollution elsewhere, though experts have also warned that some fertilizers and pesticides can also cause heavy metal pollution.

Source: shanghaidaily.com

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Keywords: cadmium rice