Big size, bigger benefits

BROWN rice is considered healthy because it is rich in micronutrients. But this nutritious grain is under threat from arsenic. The plum brown rice accumulates more arsenic than the longer rice varieties like Basmati. Intake of arsenic could increase the risk of lung and bladder cancers.

Science and Technology - Briefs

Technology Mr Gum gets it right too A popular rapid oral test for detecting HIV is as accurate as traditional blood tests, according to a Canadian research. Although previous studies have shown that OraQuick HIV 1/2 has great promise, this is the first study to evaluate its potential at a global level.

Food authority backtracks

Six states and a union territory feed their people milk that does not meet the standards set by India’s food regulatory body at all. Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Daman & Diu are the “100 per cent non-conforming” states. In Delhi, 70 per cent of the samples failed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) test. Yet, the authority claims there is no danger in drinking the milk.

Untangling India’s Bt cotton fraud

WHEN the much-awaited public sector Bt or genetically modified (GM) cotton was released for cultivation in 2009, there was celebration in the scientific establishment. And in the farming community Bikaneri Narma (BN Bt) was trumpeted as India’s “completely indigenous Bt variety” and farmers were looking forward to cheaper cotton seeds. There was an added advantage to BN Bt: unlike the Bt hybrids of private companies the Bt variety could be reused by cultivators. Along with the variety, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) also released the Bt NHH 44 hybrid.

Watch before you eat

FARMERS in urban outskirts mostly rely on wastewater for growing vegetables. The level of air pollutants like aerosols is also high in these areas. Scientists have found that both these factors have a cumulative effect on the quality of the vegetables.

What’s in your Honey?

Universally, honey is believed to be a natural product. Regulations across the world say as much. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a global body set up jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards for international trade; it defines honey as “the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honeycomb to ripen and mature”.

Pesticides in our food

There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical. Still, the extent of irresponsibility never fails to surprise.

Science and Technology - Briefs

Microbiology Bad for tummy, good for lungs

E coli outbreak in EU

IT IS a case of deadly food poisoning. Caused by a new strain of Escherichia coli bacterium, the outbreak has sickened over 2,000 people in the EU in the past month. At least 25 succumbed to the disease in Germany, the epicentre of the outbreak; more than 600 were hospitalised with kidney complications.

When business rules our kitchens

Once again there is a food safety scare. A deadly strain of E coli bacterium has hit Germany, where it has taken the lives of 25 people and affected another 2,300 till date. German food inspectors on the trail of the source of contamination ha­ve as yet made two errors—blaming Spanish cucumbers and then organic bean sprouts—but no breakthrough.