Rice finding 221

Source evidence and comparison details for the Rice profile.

A.A. et al. 2008

Market rice (white, brown and red combined) · Total arsenic (tAs) · 16 market rice samples (788 white) in the database, excluding field survey samples; field survey n per Table 3.5; speciation n=45.

Selected finding and reference

90 µg/kg (mean ± 100 SD)Mean.

16 market rice samples (788 white) in the database, excluding field survey samples; field survey n per Table 3.5; speciation n=45. Basis: unspecified (market rice as purchased; Aberdeen database tables state no dry/fresh basis).

No non-detects in this row; source reports summary values only.

HMI baseline position

Low · HMI uncooked-grain tAs reference · 16 sampling families. Mean as reported: 90 µg/kg. HMI median 139–140 (bounded); Q1 110; Q3 230 µg/kg. 16 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 Alrashdi et al. (2024): Low.
Without WHO GEMS/Food: Low.
Without Authors 2016: Low.
Without Clair-Caliot et al. 2021: Low.
Without EFSA 2009: Low.
Without Gama et al. 2025: Low.
Without Implications 2023: Low.
Without Limmer et al. 2026: Low.
Without Liu et al. 2022: Low.
Without Lockwood et al. 2023: Low.
Without A.A. et al. 2008: Low.
Without Moreda-Pineiro et al. 2020: Low.
Without Sim et al. 2024: Low.
Without U.S. 2021: Low.
Without Zavala et al. 2008: Low.
Without Wheat et al. 2024: Low.

These checks show dependence on each sampling family; they are not confidence intervals.

Reference, contributing evidence and methods

Collection period

Collection date unreported

No year-by-year sample register is reconstructed from this summary.

Geographic scope

origin Pakistan

Reported growing area.

Sampling, analysis and reporting limits

Total arsenic per Williams et al. procedures (not described in this report) with NIST 1568a rice flour CRM; speciation by HPLC-ICP-MS after TFA extraction (Figure 3.4 caption; inorganic = arsenate + arsenite).

No non-detects in this row; source reports summary values only.

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
mean	Pakistan 16 0.09 0.1	mg/kg x 1000

Original SD: 0.1 mg/kg.

Table 3.1, p.13.

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 tAs reference · 16 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	110	139–140 (bounded)	230
Alternative weighting	110	139–140 (bounded)	230

102 reference units; 16 sampling families. Counts describe evidence units, not independent studies or certainty.

Contributing family	Reference units	Weight
Alrashdi et al. (2024)	6	6%
WHO GEMS/Food	49	6%
Authors 2016	3	6%
Clair-Caliot et al. 2021	1	6%
EFSA 2009	2	6%
Gama et al. 2025	1	6%
Implications 2023	11	6%
Limmer et al. 2026	1	6%
Liu et al. 2022	2	6%
Lockwood et al. 2023	11	6%
A.A. et al. 2008	5	6%
Moreda-Pineiro et al. 2020	3	6%
Sim et al. 2024	1	6%
U.S. 2021	2	6%
Zavala et al. 2008	3	6%
Wheat et al. 2024	1	6%

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

Reference version and interpretation

Frozen evidence selection: 2026-10-22. Method: hmi-pooled-reference-v2.

hmi-pooled-reference-v2:rice-native-tAs:1784506f9277

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.