from Hacker News

High Levels of Arsenic Found in Rice Sold Across the U.S.

by LopRabbit on 5/20/25, 10:28 PM with 12 comments

• by ohm on 5/20/25, 11:03 PM

  There was a study done a while back on how to try to remove arsenic from rice. You essentially boil it for 5 minutes and get rid of that water first, then cook rice normally.

  https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-find-new-way-of-cooking-...

• by bryceacc on 5/20/25, 10:39 PM

  link to the actual report:

  https://hbbf.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Arsenic-in-Rice...

  This rang my "fraud" detector in my head:

  1. a random .org site that sounds too much like rah rah save the children

  2. spammed across many news sites and reddit and now hacker news all in a short time span

  but after reading the report it seems pretty good

  The take-away I got was buy rice grown in California, Thailand, or India. Soak beforehand if you really want to reduce bad stuff

• by legitster on 5/20/25, 10:58 PM

  This would be tough to solve. As the report points out, arsenic is a naturally occuring compound. Despite what regulations you may want to pass, the solution is ultimately going to fall on the farmers in high arsenic areas to switch crops.

  I'd also pump the brakes on freaking out. The long-term risks of arsenic are pretty tenuous at best - nothing at all like lead.

• by tmaly on 5/21/25, 2:22 PM

  My neighbor, a chemist, told me this years back. He had sampled US grown rice. He said arsenic was used to color chicken meat and there is runoff that gets into where rice is grown.