By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The Polymer Istitute of Nigeria has raised an alarm that there is some plastic rice which poses health challenges in circulation in the country.
The warning is contained in a statement signed by its President, Prof. Paul Mamza, made available to newsmen on Saturday evening.
“As the NATIONAL president of the Polymer Institute of Nigeria, it is our sole responsibility as the professional body regulating Polymer in Nigeria to intimate the general public that some plastic rice has been imported to our country Nigeria from China with a trade name ‘Beat Tomatoes Rice’ without expiring date and NAFDAC registration number respectively.
“This plastic rice are produced from potato powder and plastic materials basically by blending and extruding this material through an extruder and then pelletized it in the sizes of rice grains,” it stated.
According to the statement, you can identify these grains by dropping some quantity into a bowl of water and stir, if it settles down, it means it’s the real rice but if it floats on top of the water, it means its plastic rice, and if you as well heat this grains on a pan, they melt and sticks to the pan. If the grains are also grounded the colour turns light yellow and white if it is normal rice.
“I hereby use this golden opportunity to intimate the general public that plastic rice is detrimental to human health when consumed because of the chemicals used in the production of plastic, hence this can in-turn cause cancer.
“As the chartering process of the Polymer Institute of Nigeria is on a fast course. The bill for the establishment on the chartered Polymer Institute of Nigeria has been read on the floor of the Senate at its plenary on Tuesday, 6th December, 2016 as a first reading, we also use this medium to urge law makers to hurry up the bill process for Mr President to urgently sign this bill into law, if this is done we will join the NAFDAC and other regulating bodies to help curb the production and importation of such
goods into Nigeria,” it explained.
