The presence of inorganic arsenic in foods poses a serious risk to public health

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded the University of Massachusetts $799,993 on February 15, 2026, to develop a rapid, sensitive, accurate, and cost-effective method for detecting inorganic arsenic in high-risk foods for infants and children, including apple juice, rice, and rice products. The award funds research under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health priority area (CFDA 10.310), aligning with the FDA and USDA Close to Zero Initiative to reduce arsenic exposure in the food supply.

The project integrates green chemistry methods with field-deployable spectroscopic approaches to enable routine quality and safety assessment in low-resource settings such as food factories and laboratories with limited instrumentation and space. The resulting technology will facilitate large-scale regulatory surveys of inorganic arsenic in high-risk foods, prevent distribution of contaminated products, and support further risk assessment and regulatory considerations. Performance occurs in Amherst, Massachusetts, with a period of performance from February 15, 2026, through February 14, 2029.

Texas Woman's University receives a sub-award (awarded May 29, 2026) as a partnership participant in the development of the green-chemistry and cost-effective quantification method for inorganic arsenic in high-risk food products for infants and children.

Align with the FDA/USDA close to zero initiative, the goal of this proposal is to develop a rapid, sensitive, accurate, reliable, and cost-effective approach for inorganic arsenic detection in a variety of high-risk foods for infants and children that can be done in budget limited lab settings and safer to the users and environment. The objectives outlined in this proposed study are consistent with the call of food safety and defense (A1332) develop preharvest or postharvest methods to detect, reduce, and/or mitigate allergens, physical hazards, or toxic chemicals in foods, such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, PFAS, or emerging chemicals of concern for human diet. Our innovation is the integration of a green chemistry method and field-deployable spectroscopic method. The successful completion of this study will lead to the establishment of a green-chemistry and cost-effective approach that is capable of accurately quantifying inorganic arsenic in high-risk foods for infants and children (i.e. apple juice, rice and rice products) in low resource settings (e.g. food factories and labs with limited instrument and space). This will enable the food industry's routine quality and safety assessment and greatly facilitate the large-scale regulatory survey of inorganic arsenic in high-risk food. These activities will prevent the distribution of the contaminated products in the food chain, and facilitate the research on further risk assessment and regulatory considerations, and lead to the reduction of arsenic exposure to public in the long term, align with the close to zero initiative. Therefore, the outcome of this project will greatly benefit the long-term stability, safety, and sustainability of agriculture and the overall food system.