SERDANG: The nation’s top agriculture research agency has confirmed that tests on samples from bags marked as imported white rice have found that between 45% to 50% of them are mixed with local grains.
This practice confirms previously-held suspicions that certain bags of imported white rice have been diluted with local rice, particularly varieties subsidised by the government, officials from the agency stated.
Checks at local supermarkets revealed that imported rice is typically sold at higher prices than local rice.
The 5,000 samples tested came from 55 bags sent to the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (Mardi) from various rice factories throughout the country, according to senior officials.
These samples were submitted from Sept 2023 to March 2024 by enforcement personnel from the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry’s paddy and rice control section and the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry.
"Between 45% to 50% of the 5,000 samples we received showed evidence of local rice being mixed in with imported rice," said Dr Muhammad Zamharir Ahmad, head of Mardi’s biotechnology and nanotechnology research centre.
Molecular DNA tests on these samples found that bags labelled as imported but diluted had between 30% to 70% local rice, said the centre’s senior research officer, Mohd Shahril Firdaus Ab Razak.
"In our database, we have about 50 DNA markers of our local rice varieties, of which 10 are the most common," Mohd Shahril Firdaus told reporters today at the centre’s laboratories.
One local variety, MR297, is among the 10 most commonly planted in Malaysia and is subsidised by the government, said Mohd Shahril Firdaus.
When the centre tested the samples, some contained grains of MR297, even though the samples came from bags labelled as imported rice, he added.
The results have been sent back to the ministry’s combined ops taskforce on local white rice for further action.
"The problem is, although this practice happens, we don’t have a specific law that forbids it. So the ministry is using this evidence to craft laws to better regulate our paddy and rice industry," said Mohd Shahril Firdaus.
