KamranDad, health geek, builderKamranDad, health geek, builderGuide · Rice
Consumer Reports bought 52 rice products and ran 142 samples for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. Every single sample had inorganic arsenic in it — the kind that is a known human carcinogen. These are the five bags that came back lowest, all 52 ranked, and the way to cook the rest so it matters less.
Out of all 52 products, these are the five dry rices that tested lowest — the only five in the whole study under 55 ppb. Four of the five are basmati or sushi rice, and that is not a coincidence. The number under each one is CR’s own ceiling: how many servings of that specific bag an adult can eat in a week.
One honest asterisk: the microwave pouches. Four pouches tested lower than anything above — Lundberg 90 Second Organic Jasmine at 10 ppb, 365 Whole Foods Market 90 Second Organic Brown Basmati at 12, Good & Gather 90 Second Long Grain White at 17, Mahatma 90 Second Jasmine at 20. But CR measured pouches as cooked rice, which is mostly water, so that number is not comparable to a bag of dry rice.
The fair comparison is CR’s servings-per-week ceiling, which corrects for that. On that measure the Lundberg jasmine pouch is the best product in the entire study at 10.75 adult servings a week — just ahead of Royal Basmati at 10.5. So if you buy pouches, that's the one. The other three pouches are worse than the bags above once you do the math: Great Value 90 Second and Ben's Original Ready Rice both land at 3 servings a week, and Seeds of Change at 2.5.
Which is the trap. “37 ppb” on a Great Value pouch looks better than “44 ppb” on a Great Value bag. It isn't. You eat far more rice in a pouch serving.
It isn't the brand. It's the dirt.
Rice grown in the southeastern US — Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana — is often grown on land that used to be cotton. For decades, cotton was sprayed with arsenic-based pesticides. Those pesticides are long gone; the arsenic is not. It sits in the soil, and flooded rice paddies are an almost perfect machine for pulling it into the grain.
Basmati from India and Pakistan, and sushi and Calrose rice grown in California, come out of different ground with a different history. Same species, same aisle, very different number.
And the other half of it: brown rice is worse than white, always. Arsenic concentrates in the bran — the exact layer that makes brown rice brown. Brown averaged 113 ppb across this study; white averaged 72. That's the one time the "healthier" version loses.
Average inorganic arsenic by rice type, across all 142 samples:
| Rice type | Avg. ppb | Relative |
|---|
Consumer Reports’ entire test, lowest arsenic to highest. Search your brand. “Servings/wk” is CR’s own ceiling for that exact product — the number that actually matters, because it corrects for the serving size. Starred rows are my five picks.
Naming these because the receipt is real and public — not because anyone did anything wrong. Two of the three are brown rice, which is the whole point above.
| Product | ppb |
|---|
The seasoned rice mixes are a separate problem. Three of the six rice mixes CR tested carried more than 0.5 micrograms of lead per serving — and the lead was traced to the spice packet, not the rice. Lundberg's own Organic Cilantro Lime Rice landed there: over 100 ppb arsenic plus the lead. The same company makes one of my four picks. Both things are true, and the difference is the seasoning.
This is the part that actually moves the number, and it works on every rice in the study, including the bad ones. CR measured a 50–58% drop in inorganic arsenic. It costs you five minutes and a colander.
What not to do: don't cook rice in the absorption method with the bare-minimum water and call it done, and don't use a rice cooker's default cycle if arsenic is what you're worried about. Nothing gets drained, so nothing leaves.
CR's own serving ceilings. A serving is ¼ cup dry — roughly ¾ cup cooked. These assume you're not also eating rice cereal, rice milk, rice syrup or rice crackers, which all count.
| Who | Rice | Max servings / week |
|---|
And the easiest fix of all: sometimes don't eat rice. CR also tested amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur, farro, millet, oats, polenta, quinoa and sorghum. The worst of them — oats — came in under a quarter of the arsenic in sushi rice. CR set no serving limit on any of them. Swapping two rice nights a week for quinoa or farro does more than agonizing over which bag to buy.
Cadmium was detected in all 142 samples, and so was mercury. Lead showed up in 66 of them. But CR's risk math landed almost entirely on inorganic arsenic — it's the metal in rice that shows up at levels tied to real outcomes: skin and bladder cancer, and type 2 diabetes, over years of daily servings.
So if you came here for cadmium: it's there, it's measurable, and it is not the number driving this. The number driving this is arsenic. I'd rather tell you that than inflate a second metal to make the post scarier.
Last updated 19 September 2026. If a brand publishes its own lot-level testing, send it to me and it goes on this page.
Every number on this page carries a link. If one doesn't, it shouldn't be here — tell me and I'll fix it.
Peek the label — they're counting on you not to.