Rice Arsenic: Draining (Pasa Chawal) vs Absorption vs Cooker
Rice arsenic is real but manageable: rinse the rice, then cook it in plenty of water and drain it (the old pasa or pich method), or parboil for 5 minutes, drain and finish by absorption, and your plate carries clearly less arsenic. Absorption, the pressure cooker and the rice cooker keep it all in the pot, along with more B vitamins. Here is what each method does to arsenic, vitamins, texture and starch, and how to feed rice to babies and small children without worry.
The short version
- Lowest arsenic: boil in 6 to 8 cups water per cup of rice, then drain
- Best balance: parboil 5 minutes, drain, finish with fresh water on low heat
- Most vitamins kept: absorption, pressure cooker, rice cooker
- Children: rice is fine as part of meals; rice cakes and rice cereal as occasional, not daily; no rice drinks as a milk swap under 5
- Your water matters: if your tube well water has arsenic, excess-water cooking adds more, not less
Prefer to listen? This post as a 6 min video · Video page with transcript
Why does rice hold more arsenic than wheat or daal?
Arsenic is a natural element in rocks and soil. Every food carries a trace.
Rice is different because it grows standing in flooded fields, and flooding changes the soil chemistry so that arsenic dissolves into the water much more easily, and the rice root, which mistakes it for silicon, drinks it in and parks some in the grain. Wheat, barley and daal grow in drained soil. So they take up far less.
The kind that matters for health is inorganic arsenic. Over many years, a high intake is linked with skin changes and some cancers, which is why food agencies ask us to keep it low. The aim is a lower lifetime number, not panic over one plate of biryani.
Arsenic has no smell, no taste and no colour. No kitchen test can find it, so the cooking method is your only tool.
Which rice carries more?
Brown rice carries more than white, because arsenic collects in the outer bran layer that polishing removes. Basmati grown in Pakistan and India has generally tested on the lower side compared with many other rice types. Rice cakes, puffed rice snacks and rice drinks can be concentrated sources because they are made almost entirely of rice.
Best way to cook rice for less arsenic: the methods compared
Every method starts by rinsing the rice in 2 or 3 changes of water until it runs only faintly cloudy. Rinsing washes away some surface arsenic and loose starch, though on its own it does only a little.
| Method | Arsenic | B vitamins | Texture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rinse, then absorption | Small drop | Mostly kept | Soft, fragrant |
| Pressure cooker | Small drop (from rinsing) | Well kept | Soft, can be sticky |
| Rice cooker | Small drop (from rinsing) | Mostly kept | Even, slightly soft |
| Excess water, drained (pasa) | Large drop, often around half | Some lost with the water | Separate, fluffy grains |
| Parboil 5 min, drain, then absorb | Large drop | Some lost | Separate, like absorption |
Why does draining work? Arsenic dissolves in hot water. When there’s a lot of water, more of it leaves the grain and stays in the liquid, and you pour that liquid away. With absorption, the grain drinks every drop back, arsenic included.
Pasa chawal: how to cook rice the draining way
Biryani rice is already cooked this way, boiled in a big pot of salted water and drained before the dum. You’re simply using the same trick for everyday chawal.
- Rinse 1 cup (about 200 g) of basmati 2 or 3 times. Soak for 20 to 30 minutes if you like longer grains.
- Bring 6 to 8 cups (1.5 to 2 litres) of water to a rolling boil in a wide pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Add the drained rice and boil uncovered. White basmati takes 8 to 10 minutes; sella takes 12 to 15; brown rice takes 25 to 30.
- Press a grain between your fingers. It should squash with no hard white dot in the middle.
- Pour off all the water (the pich) through a large sieve, face back from the steam.
- Return the rice to the pot, cover tightly and leave on the lowest flame for 5 minutes so the surface water dries. This yields about 3 cups of cooked rice.
The honest cost: some thiamin, niacin and folate dissolve and go down the sink too. For a family eating daal, sabzi, eggs or meat, that loss is small beside the arsenic poured off.
The middle way: parboil, then absorb
Bring 4 cups of water to the boil, add 1 cup of rinsed rice, boil hard for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse once with hot water. Put the rice back with about 1 cup of fresh boiling water for white rice (1.5 cups for brown), a pinch of salt and a lid, and cook on the lowest flame for 10 to 12 minutes for white, 20 to 25 for brown, until the water is gone. Much of the arsenic leaves in the first boil, yet it tastes like absorbed rice.
How to cook rice in a pressure cooker (and what it keeps)
The cooker is quick, cheap on gas and gentle on vitamins, because nothing is poured away. It also keeps all the arsenic. For adults eating rice once a day, that’s a fair trade if you rinse well and vary grains.
- Rinse 1 cup of rice well and soak for 20 minutes.
- Add 1.5 cups of water for soaked basmati, or 2 cups for ordinary white rice, plus salt and a few drops of oil.
- Cook on high to 1 whistle, lower the flame for 2 minutes, then switch off. Brown rice needs 3 to 4 whistles.
- Let the pressure drop by itself before opening. Forcing it open sprays starch and gives mushy grains.
A rice cooker works the same way: cup to the marked line, lid on, let it switch to warm and rest for 10 minutes. Want lower arsenic with the cooker? Parboil 5 minutes, drain, then finish in it with less water. Basmati soaking times, ratios and leftover storage are in our basmati rice guide.
Boiled rice vs cooker rice: starch, sugar and weight
Drained rice is often sold as “diet rice”. The truth is duller. The cloudy pich carries loose starch from the surface, but the starch that gives rice its calories sits inside the grain and stays there. One katori (about 150 g) of cooked white rice gives roughly 200 kcal, about 4 g of protein and less than 1 g of fibre whichever way you cook it.
What changes blood sugar more is the portion, the rice type (sella and basmati behave a little better than sticky short grains) and what sits beside it. A katori of rice with daal, sabzi and raita lands more gently than a heaped plate eaten alone. If you have diabetes, keep your portions steady and don’t change your medicines based on how you cook rice.
Myth: pressure cooker rice is unhealthy or “poisonous”
The WhatsApp version says trapped pich makes cooker rice heavy, fattening or toxic. It doesn’t. The cooker keeps what was already in the rice, no more, and more vitamins than draining. The only real point buried in the rumour is arsenic, handled by rinsing, varying grains or parboiling on some days.
In many Punjabi and Bengali homes the drained pich was never wasted. It was fed to cattle, given to someone recovering from loose motions as a thin drink, or used as kalaf to stiffen cotton dupattas and shirts before ironing.
Rice for babies and small children, by age
Children eat more food for their body weight than adults, so the same bowl counts for more. That’s a reason to vary grains, not to drop rice.
- Under 6 months: breast milk or formula only. No rice water, no rice cereal, no ghutti.
- 6 to 12 months: soft rice khichdi and rice porridge are good first foods, alongside suji, dalia, oats, ragi and mashed daal. Rotate so rice isn’t every meal. No salt, sugar, ghee or gur added under 1. Our desi weaning plan gives the textures.
- 1 to 3 years: family rice cooked the drained or parboiled way is fine once a day. Keep rice cakes and puffed rice as occasional snacks, not a daily habit. Rice drinks shouldn’t replace milk (UK advice sets the line under four and a half).
- 3 to 6 and over 6: normal family meals, with roti, dalia, millets and potatoes rotating through the week.
Arsenic in rice is a lifetime-intake matter, not a sudden illness. Leftover rice kept warm for hours is different and can cause vomiting and diarrhoea. Get a child seen today if they vomit everything, pass no urine for 6 to 8 hours, have no tears or a sunken soft spot, seem drowsy or floppy, or have blood in the stool. For a baby under 6 months with vomiting or diarrhoea, don’t wait. If your household drinks tube well or hand pump water in an area with known groundwater arsenic, get it tested by your local water or public health agency, and ask a doctor about dark spots, pale spots or thick hard skin on the palms and soles, which can follow years of drinking it. In that situation, cook rice in clean, tested water only, because boiling in a big pot of contaminated water adds arsenic instead of removing it.
Three habits that add up
Rinse every batch. Use the pasa or parboil method for plain chawal most days and keep the cooker for rushed ones. Rotate rice with roti, dalia, jau and millets through the week; our guide to jowar, kodo and kangni has easy swaps. More grain guides sit in Grains, Daals & Pulses, and family food questions under Bachon Ki Sehat.
Rice arsenic questions people ask
What is the best way to cook rice to remove arsenic?
Boil it in 6 to 8 cups of water per cup of rice and drain the water, or parboil for 5 minutes, drain and finish with fresh water on low heat. Both lower arsenic far more than rinsing alone. Always start by rinsing the rice 2 or 3 times.
Is it safe to cook rice in a pressure cooker?
Yes. Pressure cooker rice is safe and keeps more B vitamins than drained rice. It keeps the arsenic too, so rinse well and use the drained method on some days, especially for children or if you eat rice twice a day.
Boiled rice vs cooker rice: which is better?
Drained boiled rice is better for lowering arsenic; cooker rice is better for keeping vitamins and saving gas. Calories and protein are nearly the same. For most families, a mix of both through the week is a sensible answer.
Does soaking rice remove arsenic?
Soaking removes only a small amount, and only if you throw the soaking water away. The big drop comes from cooking in excess water and draining it.
Is brown rice higher in arsenic than white rice?
Yes, usually. Arsenic collects in the bran layer that white rice has polished off. Brown rice still gives more fibre, so if you eat it, cook it by the drained or parboil method and don’t rely on it as your only grain.
Can I give rice cereal to my baby every day?
It’s better as one of several first foods rather than the daily default. From 6 months, rotate rice porridge with oats, suji, dalia, ragi and mashed daal khichdi. Before 6 months, babies need breast milk or formula only.
Are rice cakes safe for toddlers?
They’re fine as an occasional snack, not every day. Being almost pure rice, they’re a concentrated source, so rotate them with fruit and roti snacks.
Should pregnant women avoid rice because of arsenic?
No, there’s no need to avoid rice in pregnancy. Rinse it, drain it on most days and eat a variety of grains. If you drink tube well water, ask your doctor or health worker about getting it tested.