Over 10 years ago, I started becoming aware of studies that showed high levels of inorganic arsenic in rice. It turns out that rice absorbs arsenic from the soil and groundwater, and brown rice has more of it than white rice. Ever since then, I have been teaching people to scrub their rice under running water, and then to cook it in a large pot of water, (similar to cooking pasta,) as opposed to cooking it in the usual, 1 cup of rice to 2 cups water method. This will remove 90% of the arsenic. I’m sure there are other methods that can also help to remove the arsenic, but it seems that food companies are not doing their due diligence to do this.

According to a new Congressional report, high levels of arsenic continue to show up in infant rice cereal, putting our children at risk of arsenic poisoning.  The report cited a June recall of cereal by Beech-Nut for exceeding the federal limit — with the company announcing it would stop selling baby rice cereal entirely because of the arsenic problem.

Did you know that one serving of rice cereal or a rice cake could put kids over the maximum amount of what is considered a safe weekly limit?  Arsenic in children’s diets has been linked to issues with cognitive development, intelligence and memory, and if a baby is exposed to inorganic arsenic in utero, there’s an increased risk of cancer, lung disease, heart attacks and kidney failure.

It’s time other manufacturers follow suit, and stop selling infant rice cereal until they can adequately protect our children! Sign Consumer Reports’ petition to manufacturers to suspend the sale of infant rice cereal until stronger testing and standards are in place.

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