Kasetsart University scientists call off test of 10-year-old rice
Kasetsart University scientists halted testing of government’s 10-year-old rice stocks, fearing politicization. Weerachai Phutdhawong cited concerns over escalating political issues. Deputy PM Phumtham led a visit to Surin warehouses storing rice. Weerachai found aflatoxin contamination in preliminary checks. Phumtham insisted rice was edible, planning auction. Critics accused him of whitewashing losses from rice-pledging scheme. Scientists canceled test amid political pressure to avoid escalation.
Kasetsart University scientists announced Sunday that they would call off their laboratory test of samples of rice from the government’s 10-year-old stocks for fear that the issue would become politicised.
Weerachai Phutdhawong, a lecturer in Kasetsart’s Faculty of Organic Chemistry, said the controversy over the 10-year-old rice was escalating into a political issue.
“My laboratory team was advised by senior persons from several sides [to cancel the test],” Weerachai said in a Facebook post.
“My team also did not want to see the political issue escalate, so we would like to call off the test of this bag of sampled rice.”
After Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai led reporters and representatives of rice traders and exporters to visit two warehouses in Surin storing the rice, a reporter took a bag of the rice to send to Weerachai for a lab test.
Weerachai earlier announced that a preliminary check of the 10-year-old stocks from the rice-pledging scheme of the Yingluck Shinawatra government was contaminated with aflatoxin but he would need to further check the rice for dangerous contaminations.
Phumtham insisted during the trip to the warehouses that the rice was still edible and he would sell it in an auction next month. But he was accused by the government’s critics of an attempt to whitewash the losses from the rice-pledging scheme.
Source Link : https://www.nationthailand.com/news/politics/40038148
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