How do you reduce arsenic in rice?

Cook it like pasta, six to ten parts water to one part rice, then drain the excess. This removes a substantial share of the inorganic arsenic, roughly 40–60% in published testing. Rinsing beforehand helps a little more.

Which rice has the least arsenic?

Basmati from India and Pakistan, and rice grown in California, test consistently lower than rice from the southern United States. Brown rice is higher than white from the same source, because arsenic concentrates in the bran.

Is arsenic in rice dangerous?

For adults eating rice occasionally, the exposure is small. It matters more for people eating rice daily, for young children relative to body weight, and for infants, which is why the FDA set action levels specifically for infant rice cereal.

Arsenic in rice, and the cooking method that halves it

Rice takes up inorganic arsenic from soil and water more readily than any other grain. Two changes to how you cook it remove a large share of what is there.

The AIM teamOctober 20, 20264 min read

Rice has a problem no other staple grain shares: it takes up inorganic arsenic from soil and irrigation water far more efficiently than wheat, oats or corn. Paddy flooding is part of the mechanism, it changes soil chemistry in a way that makes arsenic more available to the plant.

Inorganic arsenic is the form that matters. It is a recognized carcinogen, and unlike the organic form in seafood it is not readily excreted.

The cooking fix

The single most effective thing you can do takes no equipment.

Cook rice like pasta. Six to ten parts water to one part rice, boil, then drain the excess. Published testing puts arsenic removal in the range of 40–60% compared with the absorption method where all the water is taken up.

Rinsing before cooking removes a little more. Parboiling and draining, then finishing in fresh water, removes the most of all.

The trade-off is that water-soluble nutrients leave with the water, some B vitamins, and some of the iron and folate in enriched rice. If rice is a staple in your diet, that is a trade worth making. If it is occasional, it probably is not worth the fuss.

Which rice to buy

Origin matters more than most people expect:

Lower: basmati from India and Pakistan, rice grown in California.
Higher: rice from Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri, where fields were historically used for cotton and carry arsenic residue from old pesticides.

And brown rice is higher than white from the same source, because arsenic concentrates in the bran layer that brown rice keeps. This is one of the rare cases where the less refined version carries a meaningful downside, the extra fiber and minerals in brown rice are real, and so is the extra arsenic.

Who should care most

Exposure is about dose relative to body weight and sustained over time:

Infants and young children. Small bodies, and rice cereal is often a first food. The FDA set an action level for infant rice cereal for exactly this reason.
People eating rice daily: which is most of the world.
Anyone using rice-based products heavily: rice milk, rice syrup, rice protein, rice-based baby snacks.

For an adult eating rice twice a week, this is a low priority. For a household where rice is at every dinner, the cooking change is free and worth adopting.

What an app can tell you

Not how much arsenic is in your bowl. That is a laboratory measurement varying by field, by lot and by cooking method, and no photograph carries it.

What AIM does is flag rice as a category with a documented uptake issue and give you the reason in one sentence, the same approach it takes to cocoa and cadmium, and for the same reason: a number here would be fabricated.

Common questions

How do you reduce arsenic in rice?: Cook it like pasta, six to ten parts water to one part rice, then drain the excess. This removes a substantial share of the inorganic arsenic, roughly 40–60% in published testing. Rinsing beforehand helps a little more.
Which rice has the least arsenic?: Basmati from India and Pakistan, and rice grown in California, test consistently lower than rice from the southern United States. Brown rice is higher than white from the same source, because arsenic concentrates in the bran.
Is arsenic in rice dangerous?: For adults eating rice occasionally, the exposure is small. It matters more for people eating rice daily, for young children relative to body weight, and for infants, which is why the FDA set action levels specifically for infant rice cereal.