UK shops are selling baby rice meals and drinks that are so high in levels of arsenic that they would be banned in countries such as China.
Inorganic arsenic can cause skin, liver, bladder and lung cancers, and it may affect a child’s IQ – but levels of the poison in foods sold in the UK are still controlled by old restrictions that were framed nearly 50 years ago.
Researchers from Aberdeen University found that a third of all rice-based food and milk sold in the UK had unsafe levels of inorganic arsenic. Young children could be getting six times the amount of inorganic arsenic that is safe for their weight and height.
Rice is a grain that easily accumulates arsenic from pesticides, says the UK foods watchdog, the Food Standards Agency says.
(Source: Daily Telegraph, April 30, 2008).