Sandra Munera-Picazo

Inorganic and Total Arsenic Contents in Rice‐Based Foods for Children with Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that affects the villi of the small intestine causing abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, or bad absorption due to gluten intolerance. The only treatment for this disease consists of a lifelong gluten free diet; this is, celiac people cannot consume products containing gluten, such as wheat, barley, and rye, but they can use rice and corn. Thus, rice flour is mainly used for the manufacturing of the basic products of this population. Unfortunately, rice can contain high contents of total (t-As) and inorganic (i-As) arsenic. The current study demonstrated that products for celiac children with a high percentage of rice contained high concentrations of arsenic (256 and 128 μg kg⁻¹). The daily intake of i-As ranged from 0.61 to 0.78 μg kg⁻¹ body weight (bw) in children up to 5 y of age; these values were below the maximum value established by the EFSA Panel (8.0 μg kg⁻¹ bw per day), but it should be considered typical of populations with a high exposure to this pollutant. Finally, legislation is needed to improve the labeling of these special rice-based foods for celiac children; label should include information about percentage, geographical origin, and cultivar of the used rice.

Arsenic speciation in rice-based food for adults with celiac disease

Celiac disease (CD) may affect up to 1% of the Western population. It is a disease whose diagnosis has been made mainly in childhood, but now the profile has changed, with one out of five newly diagnosed individuals being over 65 years old. The only treatment for this population is a gluten-free diet. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse the occurrence of arsenic (As) in gluten-free products, basically those rice-based, intended for celiac adult consumers. The current study demonstrated that these rice-based products contained important contents of total arsenic (t-As) (up to 120 μg kg−1) and inorganic arsenic (i-As) (up to 85.8 μg kg−1). It was estimated that the contents of t-As and i-As in rice used as the main ingredient of these foods were as high as 235 and 198 μg kg−1, respectively. The estimated daily intake of i-As was 0.46 and 0.45 μg kg−1 bw in women and men of 58 and 75 kg of body weight (bw), respectively. These values indicate that a health risk to these consumers cannot be excluded. Finally, legislation is needed to delimit the safety intake by health agencies and to improve the labelling of these special rice-based foods for celiac adult consumers. The label should include information about percentage, geographical origin and cultivar of the rice used; besides and if companies want to clearly prove the safety of their products, the exact content of i-As should also be included. Graphical Abstract

Total and Inorganic Arsenic in Iranian Rice

It is well known that arsenic (As) exposure, particularly to inorganic species (i-As), has adverse effects on humans. Nowadays, the European Union (EU) has still not regulated the maximum residue limit of As in commercial samples of rice and rice-based products, although it is actively working on the topic. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is collecting data on total arsenic (t-As) and i-As from different rice-producing regions not only from EU countries but also from other parts of the world to finally set up this maximum threshold. As Iran is a rice-producing country, the aim of this work was to evaluate the contents of t-As and i-As in 15 samples of Iranian white, nonorganic, and aromatic rice collected from the most important rice-producing regions of the country. The means of t-As and i-As were 120 and 82 μg/kg, respectively. The experimental i-As mean in Iranian rice was below the Chinese standard for the i-As in rice, 150 μg/kg, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) limit, 200 μg/kg. Therefore, Iranian rice seems to have reasonable low i-As content and it is safe to be marketed in any market, including China and the EU.

Inorganic and Total Arsenic Contents in Rice and Rice‐Based Foods Consumed by a Potential Risk Subpopulation: Sportspeople

One of the main routes of exposure to inorganic arsenic (i-As) in humans is food, especially rice and rice-based products. There are certain groups of consumers that could be highly exposed to i-As. Maximum levels of i-As have been issued for infants and young children by the European Union, but perhaps other groups are also at risk. Sportspeople could be one of those groups, due to their specific nutritional requirements, especially its high consumption of cereals, such as rice. Because of the well-known relationship between rice and i-As, the intake of i-As by sportspeople deserved especial attention and was estimated in Spain. This study demonstrated that rice-based products reached a maximum i-As content of 178 μg/kg, with a mean for all studied products of 56 μg/kg; the maximum contents were found in rice cakes (149 μg/kg) and brown rice (111 μg/kg). The estimated daily intake of i-As were 0.16 and 0.18 μg/kg bw (body weight)/d, in sportsmen and sportswomen, respectively. These values were below the BMDL01 , 0.3 to 8.0 μg/kg bw/d; thus, it can be concluded that the sportspeople group is not at a significant risk regarding the intake of i-As. However, further studies are needed to evaluate their whole diet and not only rice-based products. Finally, it is important to claim that companies producing rice products include as much information as possible about the rice used in their products, including rice percentage and geographical origin.

Arsenic in your food: potential health hazards from arsenic found in rice

License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Limited. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress.com/permissions.php Nutrition and Dietary Supplements 2015:7 1–10 Nutrition and Dietary Supplements Dovepress