The Phnom Penh Post [Cambodia]
7 November 2016
Touch Sokha
The Ministry of Agriculture has moved to debunk fears
that “plastic rice” has been distributed across the Kingdom in the wake of a
series of Facebook posts from people claiming to have swallowed grains of plastic.
“According to the experiment, the Ministry . . .
kindly informs the public that in the samples of milled rice provided by the
Cambodia Rice Confederation, there is no plastic substance in the rice,” the
ministry announced on Friday, adding that misinformation could affect the price
of the product.
Six samples from across the country were tested in the
ministry’s laboratory, said lab director Choun Mony Roth. “It is impossible for
plastic to be made into milled rice, but it can be made into plastic pills for
other products,” she said.
Roth added that it made no economic sense for rice to
be crafted from plastic, as a kilogram of plastic retails at $1.50, while the
same amount of rice costs between $0.50 and $0.75. […]