Health | Consumer Council finds all rice samples fit for consumption

The Consumer Council (CC) and the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) tested 20 rice samples, in order to determine their content and specifically check for heavy metals and other potentially harmful impurities, the CC announced in its newsletter report.

The test results were said to be satisfactory and all the samples were considered acceptable by the analysis according to standards of China, the United Nations and Hong Kong.
More specifically, the CC noted that all of the tested samples were fit for consumption, not containing dangerous substances such as arsenic, cadmium, lead or mercury.
Nevertheless, the Council advises the public to “purchase rice from licensed shops with good reputations, check the product label, and pay attention to the storage environment of rice products.”

In a separate test, the results of which were also presented in the Consumer Report issue 301, the CC tested the accuracy of fuel meters at petrol stations. In this test, the results were not as positive as on previous occasions, resulting in the CC concluding that the samples collected in a total of 7 out of 19 fuel stations “did not meet the requirments of national standard JJG443-2015 ‘Fuel Dispenser’ due to errors in indication and repeatability.”

In another case, the fuel dispenser showed that the meter started running even when fuel had not yet been dispensed, resulting in a recommendation for the urgent calibration of the eight fuel meters.
Additionally, in the report, the CC issued a consumer alert regarding precautions for applying overseas tertiary educational programs.

Moreover, in the newsletter, consumers were reminded of problems which may lead to financial losses and even lack of certification after completion of an overseas program.

Separately, the Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘supermarket price survey’ on the weekend, surveying 21 locations in the St. António Parish.

With reference to the local seven parishes and the number of supermarkets in each parish, the Council divided around 100 supermarkets into eight areas for price collection. The CC collects prices from these supermarkets for the provision of a more comprehensive database for consumers to check price discrepancies and make price comparisons according to their desired locations.

The latest ‘Supermarket Price Survey’ is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo), ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps, and on the Council’s WeChat account page.  RM