Officials halt mills, issue new test in rice scare

A contaminated rice scare has prompted officials in Hunan province to halt some rice production, while Guangdong province officials announced new test results suggesting the contamination is far more contained than previously thought, The Wall Street Journal reported. Officials in Hunan, China’s top producer of rice, halted production at three mills on Tuesday after reports that rice from the province contained the carcinogenic metal cadmium. On Wednesday, Guangdong province officials released results of a test showing that less than 5% of local rice supplies contained unsafe levels of the toxic metal. In an earlier survey in Guangzhou city, about half of the samples taken had excessive levels of cadmium.