REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Police are still examining the rice found in Bekasi, West Java, recently, which is suspected to be made of synthetic materials.
"Yesterday, we took a rice sample from Sucofindo. We checked it again at the police and BPOM (Food and Drug Control Agency) laboratories," national police chief General Badrodin Haiti said here on Tuesday.
Haiti pledged that the police would publicly announce the results of the tests immediately. "We will make them known to the public," he said.
He noted that if it was confirmed that the rice contained plastic elements, the police would investigate its origin.
In dealing with the problem, Haiti said the police would continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Trade and BPOM.
The case of "plastic rice" emerged after a resident of Bekasi, Dewi Septiani, discovered the rice she had cooked contained strange particles.
She then sought information about the rice on the Internet and later shared her suspicions that the rice contained PVC materials on various social media platforms, appealing to people to be careful when buying rice.
China has proposed an exchange of lab test results for the plastic rice to confirm the rice's country of origin.
"There must be detailed proof that the synthetic rice found in Indonesia is from China," China's Deputy Director General of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Bi Kexin was quoted as saying by Indonesia's Trade Attache Dandy Iswara, here on Monday.
According to the Indonesian government, no rice has been imported from any country, including China.
However, data from China's Customs and Excise office showed that China had exported rice worth US$182 thousand to Indonesia during January-March 2015.
The Indonesian government's representatives in China held a closed-door meeting with the officials of AQSIQ to discuss the plastic rice found in Indonesia, which is believed to have been imported from China.
Kexin asserted that there is no plastic rice in his country. Even if it did exist, he said, it would be expensive and, therefore, not profitable.
Indonesia should prove that the plastic rice came from China, he added, stating, "We are ready to exchange the results of the lab tests."
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