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Markets inspected after synthetic rice report
Measuring up: A rice vendor prepares bags of rice at his shop at Palmerah Market in Central Jakarta on Wednesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Measuring up: A rice vendor prepares bags of rice at his shop at Palmerah Market in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. Most rice vendors are worried about a drop in sales as rumors continue to circulate about the presence of harmful synthetic rice at rice shops. JP/Awo
The Bekasi Trade Agency deployed officials to seven traditional markets in the city on Wednesday to take rice samples following a report of alleged plastic rice being sold in a store at Mutiara Gading Market, East Bekasi, West Java.
Bekasi Trade Agency trade department head Herbert Panjaitan said over the phone on Wednesday that his office would bring the samples to the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and state-owned survey company PT Sucofindo on Thursday.
'The test results are expected to be issued two or three days after the sample submissions,' he said.
Previously, a rice porridge seller of Mustika Jaya subdistrict in Bekasi, identified as Dewi Septiani, uploaded pictures of alleged fake rice on social media and sent an email to the BPOM after she was unable to cook the rice into porridge.
The rice, according to her, only expanded, but did not soften.
Herbert said that Dewi's relative was reported to have suffered from nausea and dizziness after consuming the rice, but no fatalities had been reported.
The agency had taken rice samples from Dewi and sent them to the laboratories on Wednesday morning with the results expected on Thursday or Friday, he said.
The rice seller, identified as S, together with his four employees, was arrested by the Bantar Gebang Police and had been questioned since Tuesday afternoon.
Herbert said he was unaware of the status of the suspect, but confirmed that the store at Mutiara Gading Market remained closed as of Wednesday.
'We appeal to the public to stay calm but remain cautious because so far we've only found suspected synthetic rice in one place,' he said, adding that a Padang food seller who bought rice in the same store had told him that he had no complaints regarding the rice.
The food seller added that S was a good seller who had many customers.
Also on Wednesday, the Jakarta Police's trade and industry unit at the Special Crime Directorate made an impromptu visit to several traditional markets in the capital, including the Cipinang Wholesale Rice Market in East Jakarta, to respond to the synthetic rice report in Bekasi.
One of the unit's members, First Insp. Anang Prabowo, said his office had deployed 110 police officers to check whether the synthetic rice was distributed at markets in the city.
'After randomly checking seven stores in Cipinang, we have yet to find any synthetic rice,' he said as quoted by tempo.co.
He said the police also planned to undertake undercover inspections to ensure that no synthetic rice was sold.
Meanwhile, Jaya Sugito Wibowo, the communication and information section head of city-owned food security company PT Food Station Tjipinang, said his team had conducted internal inspections after learning of the alleged synthetic rice case in Bekasi.
'So far, we have not found any [synthetic rice],' he said, adding that his office would report to the police if it found the rice. (prm)
