Overview
This PLoS ONE study assessed inorganic arsenic (iAs) concentrations in UK infant rice-based foods and their general (non-infant-labelled) equivalents in 2017, comparing the findings to 2014 and 2016 surveys, in the context of the EU 100 µg/kg iAs standard for infant rice products that came into force 1 January 2016. All 2017 UK products specifically labelled for infants fell below the 100 µg/kg threshold. Pure rice infant porridge had a median of 66 µg/kg (down from 114 µg/kg in 2016 and 127 µg/kg in 2014); multi-grain infant porridge had a median of 10 µg/kg, illustrating that blending rice with maize, oats, quinoa, or potato as a formulation strategy has been broadly adopted. General-market rice cakes had a median of 120 µg/kg — above the infant standard — demonstrating that non-infant-labelled products remain a risk vector for young children.
Key numbers
- 2017 survey products: range of UK infant foods and general-market equivalents, n not broken down per product class in abstract (total ~106 products across all sampling points)
- LOD for iAs and DMA: 1 µg/kg; below-LOD values assigned half-LOD
- CRM NIST SRM 1568b recoveries: DMAA 103.4% (RSD 8.3%), MMAA 94.5% (RSD 10.4%), iAs 83.7% (RSD 12.7%), sum of species 96.6% (RSD 9.3%)
- Infant products: pure baby rice porridge median 66 µg/kg (n = 6); multi-grain infant porridge median 10 µg/kg (n = 15); baby rice cake median 60 µg/kg (n = 2); baby multi-grain cake median 8 µg/kg (n = 10)
- All infant-labelled products fell below EU 100 µg/kg limit
- Temporal trend in infant porridge: 127 µg/kg (2014) → 114 µg/kg (2016) → 66 µg/kg (2017); statistically significant (P = 0.0393)
- General-market products: general rice cakes median 120 µg/kg (n = 14; 13 of 14 contained wholemeal rice); general white puffed rice median 95 µg/kg; wholemeal puffed rice median 140 µg/kg — highest of any product class
- Rice content vs. iAs correlation: R² = 0.632, P < 0.0001 across all infant foods
- Multi-grain porridges: median iAs as low as 9.75 µg/kg, ~10-fold below the 100 µg/kg EU limit
- EU adult standard for polished white rice: 200 µg/kg; EU limit for puffed rice: 300 µg/kg
- Authors’ dose estimate: 20 g serving of a 100 µg/kg product → 0.22 µg/kg BW per sitting for a 9.25 kg 1-year-old, exceeding adult 3 µg/L water dosing by 5-fold
Methods (brief)
Retail survey, UK (24 stores across Northern Ireland: Enniskillen, Craigavon, Lisburn, Belfast) in 2017; duplicate or triplicate samples of each product from separate retail outlets. Arsenic speciation by IC-ICP-MS (Thermo Dionex IC5000 + Thermo ICAP-Q); anion exchange (IonPac AS7, 2×250mm) with ammonium carbonate mobile phase; 95°C microwave digestion in 1% HNO₃; species calibrated against DMA. Statistical: Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis; GraphPad Prism v6.
Limitations
UK-only survey; 24 stores concentrated in Northern Ireland. Small n for pure baby rice cakes (n = 2 in 2017) precludes statistical analysis of that subcategory. Only 4 products declared rice country of origin; manufacturer sourcing strategies not verifiable. Does not provide season-of-purchase breakdown. Mycotoxin risk in alternative grains (maize, oats) noted as an unresolved trade-off not addressed by this study.
Implications
- Certification: Strongly supports HMT&C’s multi-grain product assessment framework. Shows that post-EU-regulation infant-labelled products broadly comply, but that non-infant-labelled equivalents routinely exceed 100 µg/kg — meaning certification scope matters for brand legal exposure. Multi-grain blending is a verified mitigation strategy achieving 10-fold reduction.
- Courses: Exemplary case study for how regulatory standards drive formulation change; also illustrates the loophole created when standards apply only to labelled infant products.
- App: iAs in pure rice infant products clustered 60–66 µg/kg (infant-labelled); general puffed rice wholemeal at 140 µg/kg is among the highest rice-based exposures measured in a market survey. Multi-grain products with rice as one of several grains trend well below 25 µg/kg.
- Microbiome: Not primary topic.
Wiki pages updated on ingest
- Arsenic
- Rice
- Infant Rice Cereal
- EU Regulation 2015/1006 - inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 7 sections added; narrative text revised |