A report from Healthy Babies, Bright Futures revealed that 100% of 145 brands of rice sold across the United States contained arsenic. The study also found that more than 1 in 4 samples exceeded the FDA’s safety limit for infant rice cereal.
One in four rice samples also exceeded the federal limit of 100 parts per billion (ppb) of inorganic arsenic set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for infant rice cereal in 2021, according to the report.
“No such limit exists for rice itself — the bags and boxes of rice served at family meals — despite it being widely consumed by infants and toddlers,” the authors note.
Overall, the levels of total heavy metals, including inorganic arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, ranged on average from 63 ppb to 188 pbb among the rice samples — though one sample exceeded 240 ppb, for example.
The group also tested 66 samples of other grains, including quinoa, barley and couscous, and found they had much lower levels of toxic heavy metals.
The rice and grain samples included 105 different brands, including Trader Joe’s, Ben’s and Goya, from 20 metro areas across the country, from New York City to Los Angeles and Miami. Of the four toxic heavy metals found, arsenic was found at the highest levels and cadmium was second. Lead and mercury were found at the lowest levels.