The Commerce Ministry's controversial stock of old, fumigated rice is safe to eat but must first be cleaned of all the dead bugs infesting it, according to the Dept of Medical Sciences.
Director-general Yongyot Thummavudhi said his department had obtained samples of the rice from the Ministry of Commerce for examination, to determine if it was still safe to consume.
The grain, left over from the former Yingluck Shinawatra government's rice pledging scheme, has been stored for the last decade at two warehouses in Surin province.
Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai took reporters to see the rice early this month and while there ate some cooked grain from the stockpile, to show it was still edible.
Dr Yongyot said standard examination and lab testing by his department found that the sample had normal nutrient levels, like rice sold in markets, and was free of toxins produced by fungi, including aflatoxin, and there was no residue from any fumigation chemicals.
However, the samples contained many more remains of dead bugs than rice has in general. Therefore, the old rice must be cleaned before being made available, he said.
Krishnaraksa Jaidee, acting director of the Public Warehouse Organisation, said 15,013.24 tonnes of old rice remain in the two warehouses in Surin. The WHO expected to announce sales later this month, he said.
Yingluck fled the country in 2017 just before the Supreme Court sentenced her to five years in jail for failing to stop corruption-plagued rice sales. When the scheme ended in May 2014, roughly 18.6 million tonnes of rice remained. On Sept 10, 2018, the administration of then-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha sold 17.8 million tonnes, or 95.7% of the stock, for about 146 billion baht.