Is it ok for teen to cook rice at 8am to eat at lunchtime in school? It'll be kept in his school bag

[RiceRiceBabiy]

for 5.5 hours until eaten.
This is regular basmati rice he wants to cook.

He has previously microwaved those packets of rice you can buy in the supermarket and taken those in with no adverse effects.

Quick rice cooling:

The nice before, put an ice cube tray of water into the freezer and a bottle of water into the fridge (if you want to be extra-careful this could be cooled boiled water but just tap water also fine)

While the rice is cooking get a sieve that is big enough that it will only be about half-full of rice once the rice is cooked, and a bowl that is a little bigger than the sieve.

When the rice is nearly cooked half-fill the bowl with cold water and add the ice cubes.

When the rice is cooked, drain it using the sieve and then lower the sieve into the ice-cold water, the sieve keeps the ice cubes separate from the ice. Stir thoroughly for 30 seconds then lift the rice out of the water.

Rice can be cooled extremely quickly with this method - the child can start the process 30 seconds earlier and have time to cool the rice.

I’ve had rice food poisoning and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy - it was worse than childbirth. Don’t do it. Use cous cous instead.

Those microwaveable packets are ready to be eaten cold. Could they not just take the sealed packet and open it at lunch?

Are you sure about that @LilacLemur ?
2 minutes seems like a long time in the microwave if it's just to heat it.

It is cooked, you can eat straight from the packet, it says so.
You heat for 90 seconds- 2 mins because rice needs to be properly hot when reheated.

Wouldn't risk it

Generally speaking, he will be completely fine. Until one day he's not.

If you've ever had rice poisoning you would never risk it.

Sorry, you're confusing me!
You say it can be eaten straight from the pack but then say rice needs to be properly hot when reheated.
Is that not contradictory or am I too tired?

Wow. I've learnt something new today. I've eaten rice that's been left on the counter overnight countless times. I had no idea it's this dangerous.

Easy way to Crohn's and multiple other issues at least. Use pasta instead.

I’m quite relaxed about food stuff usually but you don’t mess about with rice- stick to the rules. I’d rather eat unchilled meat and fish than unchilled rice. It’s a huge risk for food poisoning due to the surface area.

When I reheat rice I absolutely nuke it. And I don't just mean 90 seconds in the microwave - I mean that plus a 20 minute oven burn or simmer (in a sauce), minimum.

It's not worth the risk.

Yes.

You can eat it straight from the pack, it has been cooked, cooled and sealed. If you heat it, it has to be hot. Lukewarm is where the risk is, as soon as you open it the bacteria start to multiply. Heating it properly makes it safer, not heated enough and there’s risk. Heating it and then leaving it to slowly cool is the worst.

same principle with rice you cool yourself, either
cook and eat immediately or
cook and keep it consistently hot (tricky) or
cook and cool down quickly and chill and eat from cold or
cook, chill and reheat so it is properly hot.

It’s definitely one of the riskier foods to reheat, I do reheat it but you have to
do it well. It’s not recommended.

Cooking it or heating it and then leaving it to slowly cool down is a risk.

Not a good solution.

The dangerous bacterium that can, very rarely, cause serious food poisoning on rice, bacillus cereus, is not killed by heat at 100C. The important thing is to cool the unused rice quickly.

Cooking the rice, serving out what you need hot and then cooling what is left to fridge temperature immediately with cold water (before eating the hot meal) is what makes it safer. If rice is contaminated, what makes it most dangerous is sitting in a pan cooling slowly to room temperature - if that happened then over boiling it won't help. If it is cooled quickly it will be reasonably safe if the original hot rice wasn't contaminated and it's eaten reasonably soon. If it was contaminated then the quick cooling will minimise the growth time for the bacteria so any illness (which is rare anyway) is milder.

If you didn't cool the rice quickly it doesn't matter whether you give the bacteria a nice warm bath for 90 seconds or 20 minutes, it won't die.

I'd listen to science every time. My grandfather lived well into his 90s despite being a smoker. Would you say that means smoking isn't dangerous?

I've had food poisoning from rice. It was bloody awful, and it triggered IBS which took several years to settle. Rice is known to be a high risk for food poisoning, I'd say don't do it OP.

I used to do this as I had two jobs so would eat it around 5pm before starting my second one. Nothing bad ever happened but it's probably not the wisest.

My (Indian) husband and I talk about this sometimes. He grew up with him and all his friends eating rice for lunch that hasn’t been refrigerated and claims they were never sick. This was in very hot weather too! I wouldn’t probably do it personally though.

I’m an archaeologist and when on site I used to do this everyday (10+ years) I just let mine cool from being cooked in my bag. I kept it out the sun but it just sat in my bag under one of the trailer sheds until lunch time . I’m still alive 👋

The reason people get food poisoning from rice at buffets or from leftover restaurant rice is because a large amount of rice has been cooked together - therefore it takes a long time to cool. There is ample time for the bacteria to grow.

A small amount cooked at home and eaten four hours later is far less dangerous as it doesn’t retain heat, although still not entirely without risk.

The dangerous bacterium that can, very rarely, cause serious food poisoning on rice, bacillus cereus, is not killed by heat at 100C.

The bacteria are killing by cooking in water at that temperature, but the spores, which are found on dry rice are not.

They become reanimated as the rice cools down. As you say, cooling it rapidly is the key to reducing their number.

It's fine. I often cook (brown) rice and then eat it 2 days later.

Those saying no, is it the same for sushi?

I'm another one who's done this sort of thing countless times for decades without any issue. The risks from rice are massively overstated.

But I would cook it in the evening instead and let it cool and start off with it fridge cold in the morning. He can do it in batches if he's regularly eating rice for lunch.

I would not do it

I got food poisoning from rice so I'm saying NO!