Selection of priority unintentionally present chemical contaminants based on the example of rice retailed in the Russian Federation

Chemicals that are not subject to hygienic standards and yet are found in rice can be classified as  unintentionally present chemicals in food products. However, these chemicals can pose a potential health hazard, which requires an assessment of the risk they represent. For this purpose, it is necessary to select priority potentially dangerous unintentionally present chemicals in rice. The study included five samples of rice from Cambodia, India, and Russia. Chemical element content studies were conducted on Agilent 7900 mass spectrometer (Agilent Technologies, Japan/Singapore) with an octopole collision/reaction cell (ORS) using the semi-quantitative analysis program for the mass spectrometer. The selection of priority unintentionally present chemical contaminants in rice was conducted in three stages. The researchers applied specific criteria to include chemicals in the further assessment at each stage. As a result of the evaluation of the selection of priority unintentionally present chemicals contained in rice sold through retail chains, a potential hazard category (PHC) was established, i.e., an integral characteristic of the potential hazard of an unintentionally present chemical contained in a food product, covering the possibility of ingestion of a specific chemical and its toxicity. Thus, in accordance with the PHC, aluminum was identified as priority potentially hazardous chemical contained in rice for further risk assessment since it corresponded to category I of the potential hazard.