Is Your Rice Safe?....The Dangers of Leftover Rice

Why you shouldn't reheat Rice...especially this festive season

Nobody likes to waste food, which is the reason why many people carry home their excess rice from restaurants to consume the next day. Few consider rice to be a food prone to cause food-borne sickness, especially if not properly handled.

Raw rice might hold spores of microbes called Bacillus cereus. These spores protect bacteria from heat and other impacts, and they aren't easily destroyed – even by cooking.
In spite of the fact that Bacillus cereus spores aren't promptly disposed of by cooking, consuming rice is unlikely to cause food poisoning if the rice is kept hot before serving – and not permitted to set around on a counter at room temperature.

If the rice is allowed to set at room temperature, the spores can germinate into active bacteria.

So hot rice served and consumed immediately after cooking is the best way!

Reheated rice could be a quick path to getting you a nasty case of food poisoning.

Does Reheating Rice to a High Temperature Kill the Bacteria?

Bacillus cereus spores aren’t easily destroyed by heat, so even if you reheat rice to a high temperature, you won’t necessarily kill them – and the heat can actually activate them so they’re able to cause food poisoning. The only way to avoid this problem is to cook rice thoroughly and cool it very quickly before storing it in the refrigerator – without letting it cool down to room temperature slowly. If it’s done properly, it’s safe to reheat rice no more than one time, but make sure it’s heated thoroughly.

What are the Symptoms of Rice Food Poisoning?

The bacillus cereus bacteria that cause rice food poisoning produce an enterotoxin that causes vomiting or diarrhea. If a person is unfortunate enough to ingest some of the spores, symptoms of nausea and vomiting usually appear pretty quickly – within four or five hours. There’s another form of rice food poisoning from bacillus cereus that takes longer to develop (eight to twenty hours) and mainly has symptoms of diarrhea and abdominal cramping.

Don’t Reheat Rice from a Restaurant

Bringing home rice is dangerous, especially if you don’t know how it was prepared. The rice has the opportunity to set at room temperature before it can be refrigerated, which allows the spores to germinate. If you take home leftovers from a restaurant–leave the rice behind. That includes fried rice, which is the culprit in many cases of rice food poisoning. Don’t take chances with your health by reheating restaurant rice at home.



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