The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), the National Police, the Trade Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry publicly announced today the result of their lab tests for the presence of plastic rice in throughout Jakarta.
The tests all came back negative, meaning the government ensured that the plastic rice rumor can be put to bed for now.
The announcement goes against the result of a test conducted by the Bekasi city administration and the state-owned lab Sucofindo last week, which showed they found polyvinyl in their rice sample from Bekasi.
But BPOM claims that they tested the same sample from Bekasi and found no indication of plastic rice.
“Our conclusion is, after testing the rice for synthetic content there (in Bekasi), that no, there was no plastic rice detected,” said head of BPOM Roy Paringga, as quoted by Liputan 6 today.
National Police Chief Badrodin Haiti also addressed the differences in test results with the Bekasi administration.
“It could be that their tools for analysis were contaminated when they analyzed the sample,” he said.
So it looks like we can keep calm and eat rice now that multiple institutions of the government have vouched for its safety. Unless you believe the folks in Bekasi, that is.
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