Rice finding 757

Source evidence and comparison details for the Rice profile.

Shi et al. 2020

Polished (white) market rice · Cadmium (Cd) · 137 rice samples.

Selected finding and reference

28.4 µg/kg (median)Median.

137 rice samples. Basis: freeze-dried grain (dry weight).

Values below the LoD (9.8 ug/kg) were assigned 1/2 LoD = 4.9 ug/kg by the source; earlier-survey values below 4.9 were also set to 4.9. A printed 4.9 is therefore a non-detect bounded 0-9.8 ug/kg, not a measured value.

HMI baseline position

Moderate · HMI dry-grain Cd reference · 9 sampling families. Median as reported: 28.4 µg/kg. HMI median 71; Q1 4.7–9 (bounded); Q3 149 µg/kg. 9 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: Moderate. The position is unchanged under this alternative. This check does not address all sampling, rounding or analytical uncertainty.

Sensitivity to source selection

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

Sri Lanka

Purchase or reporting market; growing origin not identified.

Sampling, analysis and reporting limits

Freeze-dried, milled; HNO3/H2O2 microwave digestion (CEM MARS 6); Cd by ICP-MS (Thermo iCAP-Q), Rh internal standard (new batch). Earlier surveys per Williams et al. 2007 and Meharg et al. 2013..

Values below the LoD (9.8 ug/kg) were assigned 1/2 LoD = 4.9 ug/kg by the source; earlier-survey values below 4.9 were also set to 4.9. A printed 4.9 is therefore a non-detect bounded 0-9.8 ug/kg, not a measured value.

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 statisticOriginal resultDisplayed unit conversion
medianAsia, Ind. sub-c. Sri Lanka n=137 Min 4.9 25% 16.7 Med 28.4 75% 59.1 Max 367.1 Range 362.2none

Table 1, Sri Lanka row, Med column; p.871.

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 dry-grain Cd reference · 9 sampling families. Dry-weight grain, µg/kg dry weight. Distribution of subgroup median concentration values.

Reference (µg/kg)Q1MedianQ3
Primary HMI reference4.7–9 (bounded)71149
Alternative weighting4.7–9 (bounded)71149

65 reference units; 9 sampling families. Counts describe evidence units, not independent studies or certainty.

Contributing familyReference unitsWeight
Myat Soe et al. (2023)511%
Shi et al. (2020)3211%
WHO GEMS/Food111%
Huang 2023311%
Li et al. 2022511%
Qin et al. 2026511%
Signes-Pastor et al. 2016911%
TatahMentan et al. 2020311%
Xie et al. 2026211%

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-dry-Cd:59d3645f9f4f

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.