Fundamental Toxicological Sciences

Paper Details

Fundamental Toxicological Sciences
Vol. 8 No. 2 April 22, 2021 p.33-36
Data Report
A survey on the cadmium contamination in brown rice sold in Tokyo
  • Yukino Segawa (Department of Food Chemistry, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health / Yukino_Segawa@member.metro.tokyo.jp)
Yukino Segawa 1) , Setsuko Tabata 1) , Izumi Hirayama 1) , Kenji Iida 1) , Ikuko Matsuno 1) , Hisako Nakano 1) , Takeo Sasamoto 1) , Toshiyuki Kaji 2)
1) Department of Food Chemistry, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health , 2) Deapartment of Environmental Health, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science
Keywords: Cadmium, Brown rice, Food hygiene
Abstracts

Heavy metals are ubiquitous in the environment and nature, and even in trace amounts, chronic exposure to them can have negative health effects on humans. It is known that rice, in particular, easily accumulate cadmium (Cd). Cd can accumulate in the human body and affect human health. In Japan, rice is a staple food and a main leading source of Cd poisoning. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been investigating the Cd content in brown rice sold in Tokyo since 1973 in order to prevent Cd poisoning in humans. A survey result from 2010 to 2018 stated that there was no sample that exceeded the maximum limit (0.4 ppm). Moreover, compared with past survey reports in Tokyo, the Cd content in brown rice has obviously decreased. In this survey, cadmium intake from brown rice was not particularly problematic in terms of food hygiene.