Researchers found that flooded rice fields tend to have higher amounts of arsenic and lower amounts of cadmium while drier rice fields have lower amounts of arsenic and higher amounts of cadmium. The findings could help shape policy and make infant food safer.
Researchers hope new rice and spinach studies can inform food policy and curb the amount of toxic metals found in food
In contrast, rice is often grown in very wet, flooded soils. Oxygen that would normally reside in tiny pores in the soil gets lost very quickly and is replaced by water. The limited oxygen shifts the microorganisms in the soil, and those microorganisms start breathing with iron oxide minerals that give the soil a rusty orange color.
"We were hoping to find an optimal irrigation management that minimized both arsenic and cadmium simultaneously," Limmer said,"but we didn't find one in this soil." When they dried the soil out, the researchers decreased the levels of arsenic and methane. Sulfide in the soil was oxidized and became sulfate, which is no longer a solid phase, allowing cadmium to easily filter through and escape into the plant easily.
What they found -- one metal or metalloid increasing with the other decreasing depending on the level of moisture in the soil -- presents a bit of a puzzle. This was the case specifically for the spinach industry in five states -- producers, packers, processors, and marketers- whom the researchers interviewed. Spinach can contain amounts of cadmium and lead that it absorbs through the soil.
Complicating that, one challenge with cadmium in spinach is that water is chlorinated to disinfect spinach. But adding chloride actually makes it easier for cadmium to infiltrate a plant's roots, which translocates it into the leafy green tissues.
Staying Healthy Infant's Health Foodborne Illness Soil Types Agriculture And Food Food And Agriculture Organic
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