KUALA LUMPUR: The government is strengthening procedures to crack down on instances of mixing cheaper local white rice into packages of imported rice, says the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry
Investigations into instances of local white rice being packaged with imported rice will be done through the Trade Descriptions Act 2011 (Act 730), said minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, adding that the Act will assist in identifying those who falsely state the content, types and labelling on rice packages. “Investigations will include rice sample exhibits and admissibility of evidence in court,” he said, adding that the ministry will strengthen collaborations with the Chemistry Department in analyses.
“This includes offences of changing rice packages, which can confuse consumers,” he said in a statement on Monday (May 10).
Armizan said rice sample analysis will be critical to identifying the content of local white rice and imported white rice in a package for enforcement purposes under the act.
“As the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) has expertise in this field, we will refer to Mardi as the competent authority,” he said.
He stressed the ministry’s commitment to ensuring enforcement against offences regarding mixtures of local white rice and imported white rice.
“Apart from protecting consumers, it will also assist the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry’s agenda to improve the national padi and rice industry,” he said.
On Feb 27, Mardi revealed that tests on samples from bags marked as imported white rice have found that between 45% and 50% of them have been mixed with local grains.
This practice confirmed previously-held suspicions that certain bags of imported white rice had actually been diluted with local rice, especially varieties that were subsidised by the government, senior officials of the nation’s top agricultural research agency said.
The 5,000 samples that were tested came from 55 bags that had been sent to Mardi from various rice factories throughout the country.
These samples were sent between September 2023 and March 2024 by enforcement personnel from the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry’s padi and rice control section and the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry.
