FDA Releases Arsenic Test Results – Is Rice Safe for Your Dog?

September 6, 2013 — The Food and Drug Administration has today published its arsenic test results taken from approximately 1,300 samples of rice and rice products.

While arsenic content varied significantly from product to product, scientists concluded the levels were “too low in the rice… to cause any immediate or short-term adverse health effects”.

The FDA’s advice for consumers, including pregnant women, infants and children includes…

“eat a well-balanced diet… to minimize potential adverse consequences from consuming an excess of any one food.”

But what about our 4-legged “children”?

The Controversy About Arsenic in Rice

In a recent article published here in October 2012, we detailed the controversy over the arsenic content of rice.

The interest in this issue was piqued by a Consumer Reports article published earlier that same year.

What Should You Do?

Based on the FDA study, rice is probably safe for dogs. However, is it safe enough for continuous daily feeding?

Unlike their human owners, dogs are expected by many pet food companies and veterinary professionals to eat the same food twice each day, 7 days a week, year-after-year.

And frankly, that doesn’t seem to us like “a well-balanced diet”.

Since there’s probably no such thing as a perfect dog food, it’s reasonable to assume every product is deficient or excessive in some way.

So, feeding the same ingredient — not just rice — meal-after-meal, day-in and day-out almost certainly magnifies the risk of creating adverse long term consequences for our pets.

That’s just one of the many reasons we continue to recommend dietary rotation for most dogs.