photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

In May 2025, the non-profit organization Healthy Babies Bright Futures released a report What’s In Your Family’s Rice? (1). The important findings of this report included:

• 100% of 145 rice samples purchased throughout the United States contained inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form of arsenic.
• More than one-quarter of the products sampled had levels of arsenic above the federal limit for arsenic in baby rice cereal.

Inorganic arsenic is associated with a number of health problems including cancers, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and neurological harm during development (2). It is especially a concern in pregnancy, infancy, and young childhood (1, 3). The levels of inorganic arsenic found in rice in this study are not likely to cause a problem over a short time period; the concern is with low-level long-term intake of inorganic arsenic (4).

This report also checked the inorganic arsenic content of other cereal products (barley, amaranth, bulgur, quinoa, couscous, farro, buckwheat, millet and spelt) and found that rice had, on average, 28 times more arsenic than these cereal products (1). Rice is unique among cereals in that the rice plant accumulates much more inorganic arsenic than do other cereals (5). Higher temperatures, as we are seeing due to climate change, can increase the amount of inorganic arsenic in rice (6). The inorganic arsenic is concentrated in the bran layer of the rice, meaning that brown rice has more inorganic arsenic than does white rice (4).

What can consumers do to minimize their exposure to arsenic from rice?

• Choose varieties of rice with lower levels of arsenic. The report from Healthy Babies Bright Futures found that white rice grown in California, Thai jasmine rice, and Indian white basmati rice had markedly less arsenic than other kinds of rice (1). Brown rice, white rice grown in the Southeastern United States, and Arborio rice were all higher in arsenic (1).
• Choose one of the following cooking methods:
  • Cook rice with excess water, the same way that you would cook pasta. Cooking rice with a ratio of 1 part of rice to 4 parts of water and draining excess water after cooking reduced the amount of inorganic arsenic in both brown and white rice by 54-58% (7). Others suggest using 6-10 cups of water per cup of rice (1).
  • Parboil rice by boiling 4 cups of water for every cup of raw rice. When the water is boiling, add the rice and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and discard the cooking water. Then, add fresh water to the rice using 2 cups of water for every cup of raw rice, and cook rice, covered, on low to medium heat until the water is absorbed, and the rice is tender. This method removed 54% of the inorganic arsenic from brown rice and 73% from white rice (3). This method can also be used for a rice cooker by parboiling the rice, draining the cooking water and then cooking as usual in the rice cooker (1). You may need to tweak the amount of water.
• Vary your grain choices – try barley or couscous or quinoa or other alternatives in place of rice, at least some of the time.

References

2. 1. Houlihan J, Naumoff K. What’s in Your Family’s Rice? Healthy Babies Bright Futures. https://hbbf.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Arsenic-in-Rice-Report_May2025_R5_SECURED.pdf. 2025.

    

   2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. IRIS Toxicological Review of Inorganic Arsenic. CASRN 7440-38-2. EPA/635/R-25/005Fc. Integrated Risk Information System, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development. https://iris.epa.gov/static/pdfs/0278tr.pdf. 2025.

    

   3. Menon M, Dong W, Chen X, et al. Improved rice cooking approach to maximise arsenic removal while preserving nutrient elements. Sci Total Environ. 2021;755(Pt 2):143341.

    

   4. Scott CK, Wu F. Arsenic content and exposure in brown rice compared to white rice in the United States. Risk Anal. 2025;45(8):2183-2196.

    

   5. Williams PN, Villada A, Deacon C, et al. Greatly enhanced arsenic shoot assimilation in rice leads to elevated grain levels compared to wheat and barley. Environ Sci Technol. 2007;41(19):6854-6859.

    

   6. Farhat YA, Kim SH, Seyfferth AL, et al. Altered arsenic availability, uptake, and allocation in rice under elevated temperature. Sci Total Environ. 2021;763:143049.

    

   7. Menon M, Nicholls A, Smalley A, et al. A comparison of the effects of two cooking methods on arsenic species and nutrient elements in rice. Sci Total Environ. 2024;914:169653.

To read more about arsenic in foods see: Off to a Good Start with Baby Cereal