Rice finding 1319
Source evidence and comparison details for the Rice profile.
Polished (white) rice · Lead (Pb) · 76 GEMS/Food submissions.
Selected finding and reference
76 GEMS/Food submissions. Basis: Uncooked grain as analysed (GEMS/Food "As is" or unstated basis).
ND, 0 or "<x" with a limit = interval 0 to LOD (LOQ where LOD absent); HMI-calculated medians carry lower/upper bounds
HMI baseline position
Low · HMI uncooked-grain Pb reference · 10 sampling families. Median as reported: ≤5 µg/kg. HMI median 25; Q1 10–15.5 (bounded); Q3 54.5–64.5 (bounded) µg/kg. 10 families. Not a safety grade.
Low is below Q1; Moderate includes Q1 through Q3; High is above Q3. Reporting bounds must give the same category throughout.
This finding’s sampling family contributes to the fixed reference.
Sensitivity to weighting
Equal subgroup weight within each family: Low. The position is unchanged under this alternative. This check does not address all sampling, rounding or analytical uncertainty.
Sensitivity to source selection
- Without Myat Soe et al. (2023): Low.
- Without Alrashdi et al. (2024): Low.
- Without WHO GEMS/Food: Low.
- Without Mari et al. 2016: Low.
- Without Authors 2016: Low.
- Without Bazie et al. 2022: Low.
- Without Gama et al. 2025: Low.
- Without Ibrahim et al. 2024: Low.
- Without Lockwood et al. 2023: Low.
- Without Yan et al. (2025): Low.
These checks show dependence on each sampling family; they are not confidence intervals.
Collection period
2013–2015
No year-by-year sample register is reconstructed from this summary.
Geographic scope
WHO PAHO
Purchase or reporting market; growing origin not identified.
Sampling, analysis and reporting limits
per submitting laboratory; AnalyticalQAName retained.
ND, 0 or "<x" with a limit = interval 0 to LOD (LOQ where LOD absent); HMI-calculated medians carry lower/upper bounds
HMI-calculated descriptive summary of individual GEMS/Food submissions. Country identity is not exported; WHO region is a reporting region, not production origin. EURO and European Union labels can hold overlapping national submissions the export does not let us match.
Shared samples and study overlap
Subgroup rows, statistics of the same subgroup and the study total share samples; they are not independent results.
Each table row describes a food/analyte result. Repeated rows do not add independent samples or datasets. No cross-study trend is calculated in this comparison mode.
Reported values, conversion and source locator
| Source statistic | Original result | Displayed unit conversion |
|---|---|---|
| median | 11 of 76 quantified or detected; years 2013–2015 | mg/kg × 1000 = µg/kg; ug/kg unchanged |
primary/gemsfood-rice-records.csv rows for Pb, PAHO, Polished (white) rice, Uncooked grain as analysed (GEMS/Food "As is" or unstated basis), Random sampling.
No moisture, cooking-yield or species conversion is applied to the original finding above. Any basis conversion used for its HMI comparison is stated separately with the numerical target.
Open the primary publication · HMI source record
Reference and scope
HMI uncooked-grain Pb reference · 10 sampling families. Uncooked grain as analysed (native or unstated moisture), µg/kg. Distribution of subgroup median concentration values.
| Reference (µg/kg) | Q1 | Median | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary HMI reference | 10–15.5 (bounded) | 25 | 54.5–64.5 (bounded) |
| Alternative weighting | 10–15.5 (bounded) | 25 | 54.5–64.5 (bounded) |
82 reference units; 10 sampling families. Counts describe evidence units, not independent studies or certainty.
| Contributing family | Reference units | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Myat Soe et al. (2023) | 5 | 10% |
| Alrashdi et al. (2024) | 6 | 10% |
| WHO GEMS/Food | 41 | 10% |
| Mari et al. 2016 | 3 | 10% |
| Authors 2016 | 3 | 10% |
| Bazie et al. 2022 | 5 | 10% |
| Gama et al. 2025 | 1 | 10% |
| Ibrahim et al. 2024 | 1 | 10% |
| Lockwood et al. 2023 | 11 | 10% |
| Yan et al. (2025) | 6 | 10% |
Methods
HMI calculates a pooled distribution of subgroup medians across the admitted sampling families. HMI pools subgroup medians from every compatible rice sampling family in the evidence ledger for this analyte, material and basis: published subgroup medians, medians HMI calculates from printed per-sample values and WHO GEMS/Food region-by-year medians (random sampling only). Each family has equal total weight; subgroups have equal weight within a family. Non-detects stay as zero-to-limit intervals, so quartiles carry lower and upper bounds. Means, ranges and maxima never enter as observations. Dry-weight, native-moisture and cooked results are kept in separate references; no moisture conversion is assumed.
Inverse weighted empirical CDF; midpoint at exact cumulative-weight boundaries. At least four reference units and a definitely positive Q1–Q3 spread are required. This is a display eligibility rule, not statistical validation.
Limitations
An evidence-library reference, not a probability sample of the world rice market. Sampling families differ in frame (retail, farm, contaminated sites, monitoring) and period; GEMS/Food regions are reporting regions, not growing origins. Many submissions are non-detects with differing limits, which widens the bounds. A position is descriptive concentration, not a safety or compliance judgment.
Admitted source families
- Myat Soe et al. (2023)
- Alrashdi et al. (2024)
- WHO GEMS/Food
- Mari et al. 2016
- Authors 2016
- Bazie et al. 2022
- Gama et al. 2025
- Ibrahim et al. 2024
- Lockwood et al. 2023
- Yan et al. (2025)
Reference version and interpretation
Frozen evidence selection: 2026-10-22. Method: hmi-pooled-reference-v2.
hmi-pooled-reference-v2:rice-native-Pb:4a9266cf68b5
The reference is computed by HMI from admitted evidence, not copied from a study baseline. It describes the evidence currently in this scope; it is not a worldwide or current-lot benchmark. Source, year and region filters do not change it. Different HMI scopes are not one common ranking.