Quality inspector tests rice for metal

Tests on alleged tainted rice have begun, according to the southern city of Shenzhen's quality control inspector on Thursday.

A spokesman with market Supervision Administration of Shenzhen Municipality, in Guangdong Province, said it was testing for heavy metal possibly in batches of rice sold by Shenzhen Cereals Group Co., Ltd.

Guangzhou's quality inspectors announced on Thursday they have seized batches of rice involved in the case, the Guangzhou city government's press office confirmed on Sina Weibo.

In May 2009, Shenzhen Cereals Group Co., Ltd. purchased 13,584 tonnes of rice from a supplier in central China's Hunan Province. However, the rice was found to contain excessive amounts of cadmium and subsequently returned to the supplier, Wang Huimin, a senior official from the company told a press conference on Wednesday.

Wang made the statement after the Nanfang Daily reported on Wednesday that the company had sold multiple batches of rice produced in Hunan Province that contained excessive amounts of cadmium.

The report claimed that the company, a major grain dealer in the city of Shenzhen, sold the substandard rice bought in 2009 because of price hikes.

Company CEO Zhu Junming said the firm had rarely purchased rice from Hunan since 2009. The amount of rice the company purchased from Hunan in 2011 dropped to account for only 2 percent of its total volume.