Hyderabad: Apple peels, custard apple and sweet potato, along with plastic, are combined to make “plastic rice”, which can be a major health hazard. Sadly this rice can’t be identified when raw.

But it can be recognised after cooking as it is thick and hard. Also, a sheet of plastic forms on the sides of the cooking vessel. It was this sheet that caused Srinivas, a resident of Bandlaguda, to raise a hue and cry about this rice in the city. A complaint has been registered with food inspectors of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

Mr Srinivas had purchased 25 kg of rice from a supermarket in the city. He was using the same bag of rice for the last 20 days. But on the weekend, after cooking the rice, there was a thick crust on the top and a lot of rice was stuck on the sides of the vessel. Suspicious, he pressed his hand on the rice and found that some grains were not getting squashed even after pressing hard.

Alarmed, he took the bag of rice back to the supermarket where the managers said that the rice had been procured from a rice mill in Nizamabad. A senior food inspector of GHMC said, “There has been rumours in the past that plastic rice is mixed with real rice. But we had never received any complaints. Maybe people were not alert and could not make out. This is the first incident which has come to light in city.”

Food inspectors state that it is very important that such incidents are brought to their notice. Another officer said, “Plastic rice is said to be a menace in Southeast Asian countries as the region has a lot of rice-eating people. Presently, there have been indications that this rice is being dumped in small and scattered segments of rural India. The top and bottom of the rice bags are filled with ‘real’ raw rice and the middle portion has a mix of real and plastic rice. In this way it is adulterated.”

Inspectors are still to decide whether adulteration is done at the rice mill level or at transit level. Dr P. Damodar, in-charge of the GHMC health department said, “The complaint is being investigated at the zonal level.”

Regular intake can cause cancer

There are no immediate side effects of plastic rice but if small quantities are consumed over a period of time it can affect the endocrine system, causing hormonal changes and also might lead to liver cancer. Dr Ananda Kumar, chief surgical gastroenterologist at Sunshine Hospital said, “Foreign particles like plastic will create absorption issues. The cells in the large intestine are not able to absorb the food consumed as they become weak and that leads to deficiency. Adulteration of food is one of the major causes for this kind of problem.” Experts say that the invasion of plastic into foods is one of the causes for early advent of diseases.