Rice preparation for cadmium and arsenic reduction while maintaining a healthy microbial load

As rice is a dietary staple, this makes rice production highly problematic. Thus, if cadmium and inorganic arsenic can be reduced in rice, even in rice based processed products such as flour, as opposed to rice grain, per se, then large production regions rice output can be made safer. <br><br>The study presented developed robust, low-technology approaches to rice post-harvest processing, through to food-preparation, to lower rice cadmium and arsenic species levels.

Here it was identified that the food safe and common cadmium chelator, citric acid, efficiently removed cadmium via pre-soaking rice, while also reducing arsenic species. A twostep pre-soaking stage was developed, such that when 10 different individual types of rice were processed in such a way, this resulted in removal rates of 79% for cadmium and 81% for inorganic arsenic. Also, the use of food waste materials, orange and lemon peels, were evaluated for their adsorption capacities by pre-soaking specified amount of adsorbent and water in the rice grain.