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.

If I recall my microbiology class on this pathogen Correctly, it's bacillus cereus, the cooking destroys the bacteria but they have spores, the cooking can activate spores to grow. The spores can release toxin, however I recall it takes a good day for spores to grow so think a morning in the bag wouldn't be long enough.
I certainly wouldn't leave it longer, and would chuck it if it's not eaten at lunch time. If he cooks too much I probably wouldn't risk it the following g day of its left out all morning too - just fresh every day

It’s akin to the argument of ‘it’s fine to smoke cigarettes because I’ve done it for years and I’m ok’

I tend to mix frozen peas into my rice if I cook it in the morning, both tasty and pretty much hassle-free chilling.

Also Japanese children have been taking bento in to schools for years.

@RiceRiceBabiy it's definitely ok with Tesco rice.

It's fine cold or heated but it's the midway lukewarm stage that's dangerous.

These instant rices are full of plastics. Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole! Just buy a rice cooker and cook your own. The plastics will do you more harm than potential food poisoning anyway!

DS15 takes chicken and rice everyday (eats it cold). I put it in the fridge after preparing it last thing at night, then he takes it in to school with a cool block.

But there's different levels of risk.

The risk of developing cancer or other health problems from being a regular smoker is many many orders of magnitude higher than the risk of being ill due to being slightly careless with rice.

Googling suggests that around 10 to 20% of regular smokers develop lung cancer and more suffer other health effects, so very high risk.

The risk of being poisoned by rice has to be one in hundreds of thousands if not 1 in a million levels of risk.

At some point between the two, you decide that the risk is so small it's not worth worrying about.

There's a lot of misinformation about food poisoning from rice.

It's absolutely fine to eat rice for lunch when it's been cooked at breakfast time.

Science proves what? That rice is high risk for food poisoning? Yes absolutely. Not that 4 hours in a bag will produce enough bacteria/toxins to make you sick. Tha advice is obviously super super little to no risk safe. As is the same with use by dates. Which is the reason we as a nation throw away a stupid amount of food.

Hmmm. I depends upon the 4hrs really. What temperature was the rice at the start of the 4hrs? What temperature was the rice kept at during those 4hrs?

The OP states it was cooked at breakfast and then simply put into a lunch bag.

So the rice starts out hot and then cools to room temperature which is incidentally the PERFECT conditions for explosive growth of bacteria on rice.

Now if the rice were cooked, immediately chilled to 3C and then kept at 3C for 4hrs, then it would be safe. But the circumstances in the OP are literally the most recklessly unsafe from a food safety perspective.

I think the usual view is that 2 hours is probably okay without refrigeration but some people suggest one hour.

Fine hot, fine cold, warm not so fine. Just cook enough for a few days, portion it up and cool it fast. Then reheat as needed.

Rice is one of the worst culprits for food poisoning. I wouldn't risk it.

The Tilda basmati can be eaten chilled from the packet. Once you open and heat bacteria starts to multiply.

Is there?

I did an official food hygiene course and was told how potentially dangerous rice could be. Was that info wrong too? Where do you get your info from?

I only know this because my son is going on an expedition and is panicking about being hungry so I’m researching all edible straight from the packet items. Uncle Bens you can’t eat straight from the packet. Tilda you can.

It's ok to eat cold. It's just that that if you decide to reheat it, you have to reheat it properly.

The lukewarm temperature is where the danger lies - that's where bacteria thrives.

So you give it 2 minutes to make it properly hot, if you're going to heat it.

Otherwise, you eat it cold.

I thought that the risk was in reheating it.

When you heat up a pack of microwaveable rice you're reheating it (it's already cooked).

The risk is in letting it sit at lukewarm temperatures for too long before/ after reheating it.

You basically want your rice to be hot or cold, and to spend as little time as possible at the in between temperatures.

If it's just plain rice he can rinse it under the cold tap once cooked.

OP if he wants cold rice, just give him an unopened pack of microwaveable rice to take with him and open at school.

But I'm assuming they're wanting to cook standard rice either due to cost, or as a plastic reduction measure. Packet rice is pretty bad on both counts.

Do not do this! Rice lasts 1 day max in the fridge if you cook it at home without any other form of preservation

I eat anything,stuff past its sell by date by weeks etc but I would not eat rice like this.

Rice left out of the fridge after cooking causes severe food poisoning. It needs to be refrigerated as soon as it cools down.

Have you not got an insulated bag/ box? They are not expensive.