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.

Because many posters are denying the risk by saying that people eat unrefridgerated cooked rice in Asian countries and are all absolutely fine.

There must be something in this though, because far, far more people will be doing this in Asian countries than the UK. I'm confident they would be aware if there was a risk.

So either people in Asian countries are getting food poisoning from rice often, and accept it as a normal part of life, or the risk is overstated, or they're doing something different in how they prep it/have different rice/storage of rice.

Other sixth forms are available. You surely don’t think all schools run exactly as your daughters does?

I’m fairly sceptical about the idea that the uk would be vastly superior at rice hygiene (or any hygiene really).

I got food poisoning at a funeral wake from rice that had been left out for an indeterminate time. I was so hungry & scoffed it down and was violently sick for a couple of days.

Another one who’s had very bad food poisoning from rice.

DH and I were so sick I ended up in hospital on a drip as another poster said, he was so unwell too. My DM had to drive 60 miles to come and look after the kids as we just couldn’t. I have never been so ill. DH had dysentery when he was overseas in the army many many years ago and he said rice poisoning was worse!

It's not clear from google if Asian countries as a whole are unaware of the risks

Search for Japan rice safety brings up similar stories to the uk -that you should store rice quickly cooled in the fridge

Another result looks at the prevalence of the bacteria on plates of rice from markets and homes on Asian countries

It seems to find lower prevalence of the bacteria than the USA study I discovered earlier

It does state that they think "fried rice syndrome " is responsible for 2 to 5 % of food borne illness

The percentage of samples positive for the bacteria varied being highest in the Japanese samples

The percentage of samples positive for the bacteria varied being highest in the Japanese samples

Studies show that there is a lot if things that can affect whether one will be affected by said bacteria or not though.
As I mentioned before anything from what you eating the rice with (eg if it is acidic), the state of your microbiome etc…..
So far Research is at a point where it says that whether you would get ill from it is influenced by very complex inputs and we don’t know yet if it makes a difference or not.

Ot is also fascinating that different countries are affected differently (as in affected by the toxin or the bacteria etc…). There is a cultural element in how we prepare the rice and eat it that changes things. But we don’t know what it is yet and it’s unlikely to be as easy as ‘never eat rice that has been left at Rome temperature for more than 10mins/1 hour’ type of scenario

Does he like sandwiches OP? 😉

The microwaveable packets of rice are already cooked, so if he's wanting to eat rice at lunch, why not just take an unopened packet with him?

You can eat those precooked sachets of rice just as they are. I'd suggest he just takes one of those.

yes but only rice sandwiches :)

Other sixth forms are available. You surely don’t think all schools run exactly as your daughters does?

Was that really necessary?

That's really interesting @midgemadgemodge
Are some types of rice more likely to contain the bacteria?

Im not from the UK and only heard the worries about rice once I moved there, 15 years ago.
I have absolutely let it cool, cooked rice in batches and reheated, you mention it. Never got food poisoning.
Maybe Im lucky (though, really, Ive been eating rice for 40 years and not paying too much attention to how it is chilled or heated). but its just not something that i tend to worry about.

If you are worried, OP, just get him some ice packs, to keep it cool

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5452205/

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Antibacterial-Transparent-Hygienic-Poisoning-Prevention/dp/B07QZQR62M

Some worried mums in Japan use these.... could be a good idea?

They're an antibacterial sheet for lunch (bento) boxes. This is from Japanese amazon, but there's a 'Japanese centre' shop in London than sell Japanese products online, so worth a look.

I've never used them as I've no problem with rice, but everyone is different. 🙂

I only found out about rice danger a few years ago. You'd be horrified growing up in an Asian family The amount of rice I've eaten that has been at room temperature in a hot country....

I feel that those of us who are more cautious are because we have suffered from food poisoning from rice. Mine was from a Chinese buffet. Never again.

He doesn't actually want to eat ice cold rice and I don't blame him.
If he uses the Tilda packets of rice and microwaves them I'm in the morning and keeps it warm in his bag, is that ok?
ie does the 120/130 degrees heating done by Tilda completely kill the spores that cause the food poisoning?

I wouldn't. Can't he eat it cold?

The bacteria spores are not killed by heat.

Using a microwave rice packet is a little less risky than boiling up dry rice, but there's still a risk.

Most days he will be lucky and not give himself food poisoning.

The spores are killed through heating to 121 degrees under pressure for 3 minutes which is what they do in the canning industry. So pre-cooked rice in packets such as Tilda etc are fine because they have been through that process and that's why they can be sold pre-cooked on the shelf.

It is interesting though, I wonder what the actual risk is. When I was growing up we regularly had rice and equally regularly it was left overnight in the pan and eaten the next day. None of us ever got food poisoning from that, so four of us were lucky repeatedly over a number of years.

The only time I've known someone to get food poisoning from rice was when it had been kept warm (but obviously not warm enough) in the oven.

I am now very careful with rice because food poisoning could be very dangerous for DH, and I wouldn't want to risk DS being ill either.

My rice cooker keeps rice warm for hours. It’s fairly new but my previous old battered one did too. How does that work?

Pasta keeps hot in a thermos. Would he eat pasta?

@Zeonlywayisup your rice cooker keeps things hot for hours, rather than “warm” ie above the danger zone. Most people would rather eat food that’s warmer than bacteria prefer tbh.