Can you reheat rice?

[clkim]

We've had curry and rice for tea and there is lots left over which we want to take for lunch to work tomorrow. I'm sure I heard somewhere though that you're not supposed to reheat and eat rice due to a certain bacteria, is this correct?

It’s amazing there’s anyone left alive in Asia!

We regularly reheat rice and eat it the next day or even two or three days later. It tends to go into the fridge as soon as it’s cool, and we’ve never been sick from it.

We do a lot of 'wrong' things with rice & never get ill doing those things.

Our experience is evidence it's just not very much evidence or unbiased evidence.

enjoy your rice, OP !

ps: salt level in Dominos is pretty insane, probably why it can't make you sick at 3 days.

As well as paying attention to cooling you should also be careful to keep it cool between taking out of the fridge and reheating it - if not possible to keep cool then I wouldn't risk it.

I never get all this palava. Been eating rice and refrigerating and reheating up to 5 times and nothing ever happened.

And we don't put it in the fridge straight after cooking.

I just don't get this rice anxiety

@Lockheart

Saying "I always do this and I've never had food poisoning" is a bit like saying "I never wear a seatbelt and I've never been injured in a car accident".

It's luck, not design.

It's not at all the same as that because it takes no account of the chance of the bad thing happening or the seriousness of the consequence if it does happen.

We've all heard about people being killed or injured in car crashes and most drivers will have been in or seen a car crash.

I've never known anyone get food poisoning due to rice.

Googling suggests that in the US 90 people a day die in car crashes and there are 6 million car crashes a year.

www.driverknowledge.com/car-accident-statistics/

Compared with an estimated 63000 (ie 100 times fewer) people who get food poisoning from rice. The risk of death due to food poisoning is probably a much smaller fraction too because hardly anyone dies of food poisoning unless they are otherwise vulnerable.

www.livescience.com/65374-bacillus-cereus-fried-rice-syndrome.html

@loopylindi

It's actually a bacillus (cereus)that grows in the rice, just chill it quickly - spread out in a thin layer, then make sure its reheated thoroughly all the way through.

This is exactly right. It's a misconception that reheating rice is the issue...it's actually the cooling. Make sure it's spread out to cool as quickly as possible and then refrigerate. Heat to piping hot when reheated.

I do it on purpose, cook a panful, then freeze or put in fridge in one portion sizes. NHS with different shifts, son often has egg fried rice with kung po or curry and he's never been ill, I heat in microwave for 3-4 minutes then throw in frying pan with an egg. I just leave in the pan to cool which could be a couple of hours.... He's never been ill🤷

How long is your journey to work? Because that's another time period for it to warm up and grow bacteria. Not keeping a consistent cool enough temperature is a prime cause of food poisoning. Can't you leave it in the fridge and eat it for tea that evening once you're home from work?

Yes.

I’m Indian. This has been my whole life.

Never done anything special to cool it, just left it in the pan or rice cooker. Often overnight.

When I went to the office I'd often take leftover curry and rice and it would be out of the fridge from 7 am to 12/1 pm because I just left it on the shelf in my office, rather than trek to the office fridge at the other end of the building.

If there is a risk of rice poisoning, it is very very low.

Yes, ideally put in the fridge within 20 mins, which is how long food in general can be left out once heated, something I learnt from food hygiene qualification - if it isn’t kept warm.

My brother has worked in the food area for years and he says you only need to get poorly once and you will never do it again. He won’t take the chance ever with rice. However lots of people have never suffered.

Honestly OP don't listen to people here saying 'it's fine just reheat it properly'. This is the clear hallmark that they don't know what they are talking about given that reheating will do nothing to stop the toxins which is the problem with rice.

I have heard this before

However I've reheated rice tonnes of times and never come up any harm so I'm not going to stop now!

The problem is you don't know how long it was out before you bought it, as it was from a takeaway. If you made it fresh yourself you would.

For transporting food to work just get an insulated food bag and stick a mini iceblock in there.

I always do this and it’s fine. Never had any problems and will continue to do so.

I rinse cooked rice in cold water then it goes in the fridge or freezer.

@SomethingNastyintheBallPool

It’s amazing there’s anyone left alive in Asia!

We regularly reheat rice and eat it the next day or even two or three days later. It tends to go into the fridge as soon as it’s cool, and we’ve never been sick from it.

This! Fried rice is always made with leftover rice!

I've always reheated and eaten left over rice with no problems.

I spent donkeys years eating rice made and left out the day before, then read on here I shouldn't, so was militant for a while about cooling and using, them that got too inconvenient so just went back toy normal ways and I've still never gotten sick

Yes but chill quickly and reheat thoroughly. I've reheated it all my adult life.

Left over refrigerated rice makes excellent stir fry rice. You can't really make it with freshly cooked hot rice as it goes mushy.