Consumers need not worry too much about eating rice contaminated with cesium, provided that the grain is polished and thoroughly washed before serving, according to a recent study.
Consumers need not worry too much about eating rice contaminated with cesium, provided that the grain is polished and thoroughly washed before serving, according to a recent study.
More than 70 percent of the cesium is removed after contaminated, raw rice is polished and washed repeatedly, according to the study, which was led by Keiko Tagami, a researcher at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba.
“Even if a reading for raw rice showed tens of becquerels for cesium, the contamination will be reduced to less than one-third of the original level when polished and washed,” Tagami said. “Consumers should be reassured of the safety of eating rice.”
The study compared cesium levels contained in two samples of rice harvested in Fukushima Prefecture after washing them to the point the water runs clear.
The samples are unpolished rice with a reading of about 200 becquerels per kilogram and rice polished to 82-98 percent, which means 2-18 percent of the grain has been removed.
The study showed that 73 percent of cesium was removed from rice that was polished to 91 percent, a polish level typical of rice circulated in the market.
Cesium levels remained largely unchanged even if rice was polished to less than 90 percent of the original size.
Tagami said that washing milled rice thoroughly could cut health risks. The government study of cesium contamination involved husked rice.
The government will introduce a new safety limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram of rice in April, down from 500 becquerels as a provisional limit.
The findings of the study were presented to a conference on radiation in the environment in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Feb. 27.