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The do’s and don’ts of reheating rice according to food science and nutrition professor
There has been much debate over the years about which foods are safe to reheat and which could give you a nasty bout of food poisoning and rice has regularly been a topic of discussion.
A recent viral video on social media has raised this debate once again after highlighting the potential dangers of incorrectly storing and reheating rice and in response, a food science and nutrition professor has explained some of the do’s and donts of eating leftover rice.
Viral video discusses rice-related food poisoning
The video that has sparked the recent online debate came from the TikTok account of cooking and recipe website Food52 and has since gone viral, earning over 7.2 million views.
In the video, presenter Emily Ziemski discusses reheated rice syndrome (something also known as fried rice syndrome), which is effectively food poisoning caused by eating leftover rice.
Ziemski explains that rice-related food poisoning has more to do with the time between cooking and storing the food, rather than with the manner of reheating the rice itself.
This is because rice contains spores which, once the rice has been cooked, begin to grow into a bacteria called Bacillus cereus (also known as B. cereus) which can thrive if rice is left out at room temperature for too long.
How serious is reheated rice food poisoning?
Ziemski went on to discuss some of the symptoms of B. cereus food poisoning which she claimed were similar to foodborne botulism symptoms (vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea) and these correlate with symptoms listed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
More worryingly, however, she also claimed that this kind of food poisoning could even lead to death. But while dying from B. cereus food poisoning isnt impossible, it is extremely rare.
An eight-year study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that there are 63,000 annual illnesses caused by foodborne B. cereus and that these lead to an estimated 20 hospitalizations per year and an estimated zero deaths.
According to the FDA, the symptoms youre most likely to experience from a bout of B. cereus food poisoning are usually mild and can last between 24 and 48 hours.
Beyond rice, this type of food poisoning can also be caused by cooked meat, vegetables, vanilla sauce, custards, stews, soups, and raw vegetable sprouts that have not been stored correctly after cooking.
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The do’s and donts of reheating rice
Speaking to Mashable, Keith Schneider, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Florida, laid out several ways to avoid reheated rice syndrome.
The main piece of advice Schneider offered was: Don’t let it sit out on the counter for more than two hours.”
This is because leaving cooked rice at room temperature gives the B. cereus bacteria the chance to grow. As a result, the best way to ensure that the bacteria cannot grow is to chill the cooked rice as quickly as possible.
A second suggestion that Schneider offered was to make the rice more acidic – such as by adding rice wine vinegar to sushi rice – as B. cereus cant germinate as successfully in acidic foods.
Beyond that, the UKs NHS has several tips on storing and serving rice safely.
- Serve rice as soon as its been cooked.
- If thats not possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within one hour).
- Keep rice in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.
- Always check rice is steaming hot all the way through when reheating.
- Do not reheat rice more than once.
