Government
According to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on food safety, there are still steps to be taken to protect the public from arsenic consumption through rice. The National Research Council (NRC) has released multiple reports since 2013 regarding long-term effects of arsenic ingestion in humans from multiple food and water sources. Three years later, the FDA issued a risk assessment about health effects from long-term arsenic ingestion through rice, specifically noting that infants are at much greater risk due to their less varied diets and the possible prevalence of arsenic in infant rice cereal. Rice tends to be more vulnerable to arsenic contamination due to its flooded growing conditions.
After reviewing findings from the NRC, FDA and USDA, the GAO released a set of recommendations for executive action, including recommending an update on the risk assessment of arsenic in rice and a timeline for finalizing draft guidance on arsenic in infant rice cereal. The GAO also recommended that the FDA work with agencies to coordinate risk assessments of contaminants in food, and that the FDA, Secretary of Agriculture and USDA work together to develop methods to detect contaminants in food, including arsenic in rice.
