The rice sold in Thai supermarkets is less safe than the government would have you believe.
Tests commissioned by the Foundation for Consumers (FFC) showed that 13 of the 46 samples contained a high concentration of methyl bromide. Some exceeded the limit set by China and one sample exceeded the Codex General Standard for Food Additives limit.
The samples have been examined by university and private laboratories, the names of which have not been revealed by the principals: except the FFC, BioThai and and Chalad Sue. The results were announced yesterday at a press conference (photo homepage). 73,9 percent of the samples contained residues of methyl bromide (a gas used to eradicate pests in rice) between 0,9 and 67 ppm (parts per million).
Residues of fungicide or organophosphate and carbamate pesticides have not been found. Some of the samples bore the Consumer Protection Board stamp and one brand had won an award. Witoon Linchamroon, director of the BioThai foundation, has called on the government to urgently test rice for methyl bromide, although most of the samples were below the Codex limit.
Yanyong Phungrach and Nattawut Saikuar, both Secretary of State for Commerce, were not very impressed with the results yesterday. Yanyong wanted to know which laboratories had tested the rice. According to him, only five laboratories are accredited to examine rice for chemical residues. Nattawut wants the tests repeated by the authorities. He called on consumer groups to send the samples to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Rice.
Earlier this morning, Ms. Srinuan Korrakochakorn, deputy director general of the Food and Drug Administration, and a representative from the Ministry of Health stated at a Senate committee hearing that packaged rice is safe. After learning about the test results, Srinuan said she wanted to be informed about the results and the test method. 'I want to know how the results have been interpreted. Only the Overseas Merchandise Inspection Co Laboratory tests rice for export.'
Kanoporn Apisuk, a food safety expert from the Department of Medical Sciences, told the committee that a recent test of 54 samples found no traces of phosphine gas or residues of pesticides and aflatoxin. Mold and yeast contamination remained below the limit of 1.000 cfu/g.
The president of the Thai Rice Packers Association yesterday emphasized that packed rice is safe. Any residue would evaporate when the rice is cooked.
(Source: bangkok mail, July 17, 2013)
Dear people, this entire codex is nothing more than an occupational therapy for food safety officials and an opportunity to meet again in separate places: this month in… Santiago de Chile, in a few months in… Chiang Mai… and early next year in .. Amsterdam (yes, the Chileans and Thais also want to go to Faraway Gistan). The standard can be adopted completely voluntarily, and is the agreement that everyone can live with, or in other words: the very lowest standard that everyone can reach on their own, see below the answer from the Codex itself.
Dear Sir,
We would like to clarify the status of Codex standards: Codex standards are a reference as regards food safety under the WTO SPS Agreement. , and at the same time they are voluntary, which means that member countries may decide to use them or not at the national level as a basis for their regulations, but they have no obligation to do so. According to the SPS Agreement when countries apply more stringent requirements they may be called upon to justify them on a scientific basis, through a risk assessment. This may be discussed as a trade concern in the SPS committees and in some cases differences in regulations may result in an actual trade dispute which follows the WTO rules for that purpose.
In the framework of Codex most standards and related texts are adopted by consensus by the Codex Alimentarius Commission; in some cases the EU or any other Codex member may put forward a reservation on some provisions, in this case they do not prevent the adoption of the standard in Codex but they express a different view for the record. Codex members may have a different standard or provision in their national legislation as the application of Codex standards is voluntary.
I hope this clarifies the process.
Best regards
Selma H. Doyran
Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme
Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department
FAO
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome, Italy
Email: Selma Doyran at fao dot org
Dear People.. that little bit of methyl bromide (banned in the EU for years, damages your motor system, so you're going to walk a bit weird, if you can still do that) and phosphine.. let it air for a day, and it's gone.
The REAL danger in bad = damp storage is aflatoxin, call it the “poo” of the fungus Aspergillus flavus. Can you get liver cancer, and a risk that increases enormously if you already have hepatitis.
The most dangerous is the type B1, at more than 2 ppb (parts per billion, or micrograms per kg), this rice is no longer allowed to enter the EU, for the sum of B1+B2+G1+G2 (the other three Afla types) at 4 ppb the EU import is blocked (in Thailand 30 ppb is still allowed, and that with a rice consumption that is 30-40 times higher than in the EU).
For many decades, the risk of aflatoxin in Thai rice has been ZERO, but then the rice was properly stored, processed, packed and exported. Now... is it stored anywhere, where it's out of sight, and tested for afla? ?
Did you seriously think that only ONE member of parliament (and often himself or family co-shareholder somewhere in the rice industry) cared one thread whether a liver cancer epidemic would break out in TH in a few years? Maybe even a shareholder in a hospital, so it also brings in money.
Yes, as an importer I often go to the Keuringsdienst van Waren (now NVWA), but .. these kinds of excesses are absolutely unthinkable in the EU.
TIT TWA: This is Thailand, Thailand always wins
mold and yeast remained below the limit of 1.000 cfu/g.
Standard in the EU: Yeast and Mold : Less than 200 cfu/g
In other words: already 5 x the MAXIMUM value in the EU.
Eat them ! (or actually the only solution: burn the entire stock older than Spet / Oct 2012, because feeding the cows causes Afla M1 and M2 in the milk, and also trouble in the meat.
Just search on Google.
Does anyone have a serious suggestion on how to deal with this as a consumer?
Seems very difficult to me, you get and eat rice everywhere.
So how do you avoid eating unsafe rice?
@ Henk Udon Organic rice is also grown and sold in Thailand. I don't know the brand names. Perhaps a reader knows. You could also choose rice from other countries (India, Vietnam). If your question pertains to eating out in Thailand, I wouldn't know what's sensible. Then you must eat (rice) what the potluck eats. If you live in the Netherlands, you don't have to worry. See Harry's response.