Reevaluating Rice Cadmium Exposure Risks: Balancing Methodological Rigor and Regulatory Feasibility in Food Safety Standard-Setting

Abstract

China’s national food safety standard for cadmium (Cd) in rice anchors domestic efforts to protect public health. Setting maximum limits for Cd in staple crops requires balancing toxicological rigor with regulatory feasibility. A recent Science Advances study derived ultralow theoretical rice Cd thresholds (0.017 mg/kg for adults; 0.0006 mg/kg for children) via PBPK modeling and the BMD method─the same methodological frameworks aligned with international authorities (EFSA/JECFA), contrasting sharply with national (China GB 2762: 0.2 mg/kg) and Codex (0.4 mg/kg) standards. This Viewpoint bridges academic hazard modeling with pragmatic food safety governance. By contextualizing implementation-level parameter choices within international (EFSA/JECFA) and national (CFSA) frameworks, we demonstrate that theoretical thresholds represent laboratory risk boundaries under worst-case assumptions rather than actual population risk. Because staple intake and dietary matrix configurations vary across regional populations, sovereign authorities must execute localized exposure evaluations. We advocate for Truncated Scenario Exposure Assessments and the ALARA principle to establish a dual-track paradigm that evaluates real-world regulatory protectiveness while aligning academic research with food safety standard-setting.