Rice left overs

[WeCameToDance]

I have always read that as long as stored and reheated properly left overs are fine but to be wary of rice. Why is this? I used to eat leftover rice in my student days often and never got ill probably dogded a massive bullet there.
This question has plagued me for a while, does anyone know the reason?!

Something to do with triggering arsenic in the rice? Avoid

nhs link basically, don't.

Rice can have bacterial spores in it, this particular bacteria can survive cooking so when the rice is cooling/sitting around the bacteria multiply, then aren't killed when you reheat it. It's quite a nasty bacterium so best avoided, although isn't guaranteed to be in all rice which is why a lot of people reheat rice and are fine. I don't risk it myself but I am cautious (microbiology background).

It's a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The only time I've ever had food poisoning was after eating leftover rice salad which had been sitting on my desk for much of the afternoon. It was grim.

I have never had food poisoning from rice but I do hear about this often.

We eat a lot of rice. I always cool it properly and refrigerate and heat properly the following day with leftovers.

We often eat leftover paella, though it is cooled straight away in the fridge

In the beer fridge must add

I quite often make extra risotto and have always been fine but do eat my leftovers with a slight worry! How do you guys cool it down quickly? Straight in the fridge? I end up popping my own in a sink of cold water as I’m not sure I should shove in fridge still hot. No idea!

Never had it, frequently batch cook meals with rice and reheat the.

Ahh I see! Thank you for the nhs link! Accidentally cooked too much, its now cool. I dont know whether to keep it and make sure its reheated fully tomorrow or to just bin it.

As long as it isnt left out at room temperature for too long and is put in the fridge quickly rice should be ok to reheat. We reheat risotto, paella, etc

I think I must be one of the unlucky ones, had a bad run in with some reheated rice. Never again!

MN is the only place I've ever heard of dangerous reheated rice. I've been eating it all my life.

I quickly cool down any left over rice by putting the pan in the sink filled with cold water, then it goes in the fridge for reheating, I think it’s only dangerous if you leave it hanging around.

We reheat rice all the time and have never had a problem.

The bacteria that rice can contain produces a toxin when left warm, this toxin cannot be removed by reheating. If you cook, cool quickly and then either reheat or eat cold then it is fine. If you cook then leave hot/warm to cool down slowly then it can make you ill if you later eat it hot or cold.

Frankly, I'm surprised I'm still alive given the amount of leftover rice I scoffed in my 20s. Not even reheated a lot of the time - rice that was left sitting out for ages or in the fridge and then eaten cold hours later

I don't do it now after reading so many horror stories on MN! DP still does though and is yet to be horribly poisoned (though he does store his properly and nuke it in the microwave before eating.)

Shantoto

I decant the rice into a long Tupperware type box and wack it straight into the beer fridge.

I think advice is not to put hot food into a fridge, but beer fridge is fine as it doesn't matter if the beer warms

Would love to know the background to that NHS recommendation. Probably a few people who did something stupid.

Never had a problem and worked in China for 3 years. Don't think they follow such stringent rules.

I've never had a problem with reheated rice that's been properly cooled and stored in the fridge, we do it regularly, but my whole family was made very unwell once by rice left outside in the sun all afternoon at a friend's party, as were lots of other guests.

Someone in the catering industry once told me rice is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria because of the small surface area of the grains. No idea if that's true.

I’ve eaten leftover rice cold and recooked and never had a problem. My ME mil says it’s fine. My sister however wouldn’t ever eat leftovers (but then she thinks skimmed milk is ‘full of nasty stuff’).

If it’s cooled and popped into the fridge then it should be fine. But then I’ve even eaten it after a night in a covered pan. Maybe I’ve got cast iron guts. I steam mine if that makes any difference.

I eat leftover rice ALL the time and never have an issue, just make sure it’s cooled very quickly and refrigerated properly

The NHS article is based on the microbiology of Bacillus cereus if you want to look up the details. Same family as a lot of harmless bacteria but also closely related to anthrax. Obviously anthrax doesn't cause food poisoning, it's the spore formation that they have in common. PP are correct in that if you cool it rapidly the spores don't get chance to work their 'magic' but the risk is very real if you don't. Probably because a lot of reheated rice dishes also contain meat etc so if people get ill as a result they probably assume it was reheating the meat that caused it.