Thai rice not contaminated: PM

BANGKOK (Xinhua) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Saturday reaffirmed that his country's rice is not contaminated, saying that she has ordered for the inspection of rice quality to ease public worries.

The prime minister gave assurances in her weekly televised address following reports and rumours about contaminated rice.

Yingluck said Thai rice has not had such problems as reported in the news. If there was contamination, an investigation should be conducted to find out at what stage it is occurring during rice production, whether in milling, packaging or transportation.

The government will inform the public over the investigation of alleged contaminated packed rice to ease public worries, said the prime minister, adding that the public health ministry has also been instructed to strictly inspect the quality of Thai rice.

Yingluck, who recently visited a rice factory of CP Group's International Trading Business Group in central Ayutthaya province which manufactures and distributes "Royal Umbrella Rice", said that she has observed rice production processes here,from milling to storage to inspections to packaging to transporting, and can guarantee that Thai rice is safe and meets all safety and quality standards.

She however noted that all food-related factories need to carefully maintain high quality of food production.

The prime minister's remarks came as Thailand's leading rice packer "Royal Umbrella Rice" earlier lodged a complaint against Bangkok television host Suttipong Thammawut for allegedly spreading false claims via social media that its rice was contaminated and was under standard.

The company said that the TV host's claims were untrue and caused both Thai and foreign consumers to lose confidence in the quality of Royal Umbrella brand rice.