Arsenic in Infant Rice Cereal

On the news two days ago there was a story about elevated levels of arsenic in rice in the United States.      At first I only marginally paid attention to the story; I don't eat that much rice and when I do it's usually at a restaurant.  Also, I have a vague memory of arsenic naturally occurring in rice.  That's why cooked rice smells so bad when it's left unrefrigerated.

We've been feeding our son rice cereal mixed with formula for more than a month now, and he likes eating from a spoon.  It wasn't until the group discussion during today's Scooters Baby class at Isis that I made the connection between his rice cereal and the rice with elevated arsenic.  Actually, some other parents made the connection for me; the class had a brief discussion about the findings.

There was some confusion about which brands were effected and to what extent, and if organic versus non-organic made a difference.  I decided to do some research here on the trusty ol' internet to get to the bottom of things.  I'll provide all the links and sources I used so you can read further or want to check things for yourself.

On September 19th the FDA released a study entitled "Arsenic in Rice," looking at both organic and inorganic arsenic in rice.  Much more informative was another page on the FDA site, "Questions & Answers: FDA’s Analysis of Arsenic in Rice and Rice Products."  Inorganic arsenic is the type that can lead to increased risk of "skin, bladder, and lung cancers, as well as heart disease."  There are types of organic arsenic that can be toxic, but the inorganic types are typically the most toxic.  There is no real difference in arsenic levels between between organic and non-organic rice, according to the FDA.  Looking at the infant rice cereals in the Consumer Reports chart below, however, one can see that many of the organic infant rice cereals have less arsenic than the non-organic.  This International Agency for Research on Cancer monograph has a lot more information about arsenic and other carcinogens, for people who want to learn more and like to read very formal scientific studies.

Arsenic is absorbed into food from the soil and water, and according to the FDA rice absorbs arsenic at an increased rate.  According to Discovery News, "the way rice is cultivated in water-flooded conditions makes it more vulnerable to absorbing arsenic."  The way I understand it is that because rice has the opportunity to absorb arsenic from both the soil and the water, it does so at a higher rate than other grains.

I found the Consumer Reports article to be the most informative, and also the longest.  Consumer Reports provided some explanation as to how elevated levels of arsenic get into our food.  Much of it comes from industrial pollution, and arsenic remains in the environment longer than other substances.  States that used to produce cotton were found to have the most arsenic in the soil because arsenic was heavily used as a pesticide to fight the boll weavle beetle.  The use of arsenic insecticide was banned in the 1980's, but it is still used in animal feed and is present in agricultural soil to this day.  Part of the problem is that arsenic remains in the environment for a long time, even after its use has been discontinued.

Consumer Reports found a lot of variation even within the same brand of infant rice cereal.  We've been feeding our baby the Gerber brand rice cereal, both organic and non-organic.  Some of the samples studied had the lowest overall (organic and inorganic) levels of arsenic within the category, while others had the highest.  You could buy two boxes of the same cereal from the same shelf at the market and they could have very different levels of arsenic.

There is a difference between brown rice and white rice, and when it comes to arsenic white rice is the healthier of the two.  All rice has the husk removed, then white rice also has the outer layers (the bran and germ) removed.  This is what makes brown nice more nutritious because the bran and husk are protein and nutrient-rich.  They also absorb arsenic, so removing them from the rice leaves the rice with less arsenic overall.

The FDA does not recommend that we limit our rice consumption.  They give the standard advice that one shouldn't eat only rice but consume a variety of grains from many sources.  Consumer Reports gives different advice, however, which you can see in the graphic below:

Image from Consumer Reports' article

What can you do about arsenic in your food?  The Consumer Reports site provided a link to a Consumers Union website that allows you to send an e-mail to policymakers, urging them to set limits on arsenic levels in food and to ban the use of drugs containing arsenic in animals' feed.  Based on the logo of Consumers Union, I can safely say they're affiliated with Consumer Reports in some way.

We've switched baby to barley or oat cereal.  Rice contains more nutrients than these other grains, but we're trying to limit baby's exposure to chemicals and toxins as much as possible.  Given what I've learned about the increased absorption of arsenic by rice I think the negative effects outweigh the positive.  Arsenic may be present in barley and oats as well, but these grains should not contain as much as rice.  I have yet to find a study as extensive on the arsenic content of these other grains, but I'll keep looking.

Below find the Consumer Reports table detailing levels of arsenic found in different U.S. brands.  The FDA's tables only make reference to sample numbers and don't identify any brands in particular, probably to avoid any possible litigation that could result from singling anyone out.

Image from Consumer Reports