Rice Heating Toxic – Caution! Read this advice!
Dishes are often kept in the refrigerator and reheated to eat after a few days. Food has a limited shelf life in the refrigerator. Placing it in the refrigerator increases the risk of spoilage, especially if you keep it longer than 2 days and if your dish is not covered properly. This is also the case with rice. Does heating make rice poisonous?
Rice Heating Toxic. Rice naturally contains the bacteria Bacillus cereus, these are spores. After cooking, new bacteria form that produce Toxin and this is poisonous. Immediately after cooking there is nothing wrong, the rice is not poisonous. In the refrigerator, these bacteria reproduce rapidly and after 2-3 days the rice is spoiled.
Rice can be reheated in different ways after storage in the refrigerator. You can also reheat frozen rice, but you must thaw it first. In our blog about reheating rice, 4 methods are discussed on how to reheat rice.
Is Rice Toxic After Reheating?
Rice and other grains contain the bacteria Bacillus cereus. The bacterium is really everywhere in the world and forms spores. Spores are unicellular bodies. So naturally rice contains this bacteria.
Cooking usually kills bacteria, but this is not the case with Bacillus cereus. Cooking activates them and creates new bacteria that are toxic to humans. If you eat the boiled rice right away, there is nothing to worry about. The bacteria are not yet fully grown and will therefore not cause a nuisance; the rice is not poisonous.
However, if the rice is kept in the refrigerator, the bacteria have the opportunity to grow into larger bacteria and they are toxic. This can cause inconvenience. It won’t feel like death, but it will cause a lot of nuisance.
Symptoms
I think the symptoms that can occur are clear. For example, diarrhea and vomiting are common with this form of food poisoning. It starts about 1 to 2 hours after eating spoiled rice and can last for up to a day. So no fun, don’t take any chances!
How To Store Rice After Cooking?
If you have a lot of cooked rice and you want to keep the leftover rice in the fridge, you have to cool it down quickly after 4 degrees Celsius. You can do this by spreading the rice out on a large bowl and letting it come back to room temperature first. Then place this bowl in the refrigerator. When the rice is well cooled, put the rice in a sealable refrigerator container.
Do not keep the rice for longer than 2 days. When you want to reheat it, make sure you heat it well, whichever method you use. And first look, smell and taste, of course, to determine whether the rice is still good.
If you want to store rice for a longer period of time, we recommend that you put the rice in a freezer bag and freeze it. You can keep it like this for 3 months. If you are going to use it, look, smell and taste it first.
Takeaway Rice Warming
It is better not to warm up rice from the Chinese takeaway or from any restaurant or delivery service. You have no idea how this rice is prepared and when this rice is prepared. You may end up with rice that has been in the fridge for two days, you don’t know. So don’t take any chances and throw it away.
DISCLAIMER: The contents of this page are not medical advice. The danger differs per situation and from person to person. It is therefore important to always consult the doctor when a poisonous dish has been eaten.
