Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. 
Clinical Pharmacist and Master’s student in Clinical Pharmacy with research interests in pharmacovigilance, behavioral interventions in mental health, and AI applications in clinical decision support. Experience includes digital health research with Bloomsbury Health (London) and pharmacovigilance practice in patient support programs. Published work covers drug awareness among healthcare providers, postpartum depression management, and patient safety reporting. What was studied?
This research news article summarizes a peer-reviewed study on kids’ rice snacks arsenic levels in Australia, evaluating inorganic and total arsenic in rice-based infant and toddler foods and benchmarking results against the European Union limit for infants (0.1 mg/kg inorganic arsenic). The investigators sampled 39 supermarket products spanning milk formula powder, cereals, crackers, and pasta made from white, brown, organic, and non-organic rice. Using Australia’s current standard (1 mg/kg total arsenic) and the EU infant standard, they quantified exceedances and translated the findings into product-specific “safe daily consumption” thresholds for children ≤5 years. The article emphasizes that Australia lacks child-specific limits and that guidelines are based on adult diets that no longer reflect contemporary consumption patterns, thus creating regulatory misalignment relevant to heavy-metal certification.
Who was studied?
The analysis focused on foods marketed for babies and toddlers available in Australian supermarkets, representing 11 brands sourced from six countries, including Australia, Thailand, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States. Although the study did not track individual children, the exposure assessment targets Australian children up to age five who consume rice-based products as snacks or staple carbohydrates. The article highlights the heightened vulnerability of children to inorganic arsenic’s long-term toxicity and notes that consumption patterns, particularly frequent intake of rice crackers and rice pasta, can materially increase risk. Results were interpreted using the EU infant standard because Australia has no child-specific limit, making the findings directly relevant to risk communication for parents and to standard-setting for programs addressing kids’ rice snacks arsenic exposure.
Most important findings
| Critical point | Details |
|---|---|
| High exceedance rate vs EU infant limit | Seventy-five percent of tested products had inorganic arsenic above the EU 0.1 mg/kg threshold for infants and young children, signaling systemic non-conformance if EU criteria were applied in Australia. |
| Brown vs white rice products | Products imported from China showed the lowest average total arsenic (≈0.10 mg/kg), while those from the U.S. were the highest (≈0.24 mg/kg), reflecting irrigation water arsenic burdens. Origin can be a pragmatic sourcing control. |
| Country-of-origin signal | Thirty-nine infant/toddler products across 11 brands were tested, covering formulas, cereals, crackers, and pasta; products with higher total arsenic underwent inorganic speciation, aligning with risk-relevant analytics. |
| Standards mismatch | All products met Australia’s 1 mg/kg total-arsenic limit, which exceeds the WHO total-arsenic level of 0.3 mg/kg, but many failed the EU infant inorganic-arsenic limit; certification schemes must explicitly choose their reference standard. |
| Safe daily consumption guidance | Using EU infant criteria, modeled “safe” daily intakes were: 1×25 g rice pasta, or 2× rice milk formula (10 g total), or 2× rice cereal (40 g total), or 3× rice crackers (27 g total). |
| Product scope and targeting | Thirty-nine infant/toddler products across 11 brands were tested, covering formulas, cereals, crackers and pasta; products with higher total arsenic underwent inorganic speciation, aligning with risk-relevant analytics. |
| Risk framing for parents | Rice can fit within balanced diets, but making rice the predominant carbohydrate for under-fives elevates arsenic exposure risk; moderation and product choice matter. |
| Regulatory recommendation | The authors call for child-specific Australian arsenic standards aligned to current science and consumption patterns, directly pertinent to HTMC criteria harmonization. |
Key implications
For HTMC, primary regulatory impacts include the need to anchor limits to inorganic arsenic with child-specific thresholds comparable to the EU infant standard; certification requirements should mandate inorganic arsenic testing and product-level disclosure; industry applications include origin-based sourcing and preferring white-rice inputs; research gaps involve brand-level transparency and longitudinal intake modeling; practical recommendations are to set ≤0.1 mg/kg inorganic arsenic for infant rice foods, require periodic speciation testing, and publish safe-serving guidance on labels.
Citation
Gu Z, de Silva S, Reichman SM. Arsenic Concentrations and Dietary Exposure in Rice-Based Infant Food in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(2):415. doi.10.3390/ijerph17020415
Arsenic is a naturally occurring metalloid that ranks first on the ATSDR toxic substances list. Inorganic arsenic contaminates water, rice and consumer products, and exposure is linked to cardiovascular disease, cognitive deficits, low birth weight and cancer. HMTC’s stringent certification applies ALARA principles to protect vulnerable populations.
