To think that this is dangerous, and a home economics teacher should know better?

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

DD had food tech first lesson this morning. She made chilli con carne, with rice. It has spent the whole day, in a tupperware container, on the worktop in the classroom, and she wasnt allowed to collect it until the end of the day.
Now, having been to catering college, and studied food science, it seems to me that having cooked rice sitting out the whole day is really stupid, not to mention dangerous, and is not a good thing to be teaching anybody?
And owing to the fact that DD was unable to acess the chilli at lunchtime, when it would have probably have been safe to eat, it has now gone in the bin, therefore wasting the £7+ that the ingredients cost me!
Factoring in the other lessons, where I have paid for ingredients, and then on the day the teacher has been absent, causing the meat and dairy ingredients that she needed to end up in the bin, I have half a mind to contact the school, and tell them that DD wont be participating in future!

It should have been put in the fridge. (or the chilli made and rice cooked fresh at home). Sorry for typos in last post.

If the rice and chilli were in the same container then yes I would have binned the lot because of the danger associated with the rice. I would raise this with school - shocking for a HE teacher not to know this about rice

One of the only bits I really remember from my Food Hygiene cert was about rice! The tutor said never keep takeaway rice that's been leftover as it will have been out too long. You have to decide how much you want left before you start then rapidly cool and put in fridge or just chuck as it's too much hassle

YANBU

Oh, yuck! I remember being taught about rice and cooling it fast when we were 13 at school, so it's not exactly a new discovery.

YANBU.

I once made DH v ill with left out rice, learnt the hard way, won't forget in a hurry. It had only been out about 3 hours, but was v hot weather.

Saggy I can see that these might be H&S guidelines, but seriously, rice can be left to cool naturally and eaten up to a day later perfectly safely.
If the rice has gone bad, it smells bad. If it hasn't gone bad, it smells OK.

I can see that you might expect a home economics teacher to have a better command of H&S standards, but in practice, unless I had other concerns about hygiene in that college, I really wouldn't chuck the rice on the basis of it's not having been refridgerated.

And I eat cold rice all the time. And serve it to everyone.
And I have never become ill from doing so. Nor has anyone I've served it too!

I had food poisoning from rice once, it was horrible. The stomach pains were like nothing on earth!

When DS1 did food tech, they cut the lesson short one day so his cake didn't cook through completely. They left it on the side most of the day and told home to "tell mum to put it in the oven to finish it off when you get home!"

Mum put it straight in the bin!

YANBU and urgh at the cost of wasteage

feel up to writing to school to complain?

Balia, I cant remember exactly, chicken breast, several jars of spices which werent in the cupboard, curry from scratch ingredients. There wasn't one thing on the list in my store cupboard!

Why do they not have fridges? Also this about buying your own food is crazy. I'm so pleased I don't work in England. HE teacher's like this give the rest of us a bad name.

mango - is that the same kind of bad, though? I know the sour smell 'off' rice gets but I understood it that the bacteria you get that are really serious develop very fast - is it possible they are something different?

If rice is contaminated with bacillus cereus it will not smell, taste, or look any different to uncontaminated rice.

Um... could be, LRD. I'm no scientist, and (formally, at least), no domestic scientist...

But rice that I've cooked and eaten hot, then eaten left overs old up to a couple of days later (having left them to cool naturally over night, fridge or coolish larder next day), are a staple part of our diet, have been for years.

Admittedly I have quite a cold kitchen, but I've never become ill from any rice-related thing, and neither has anyone to whom I've served my various rice-based delights, hot and cold!

YANBU.

I had a stomach upset from rice that I took to lunch for work. I had a meeting on the way in so it was out of the fridge for a while.

Mango, food doesnt have to be spoiled to be dangerous. Food poisoning bacteria and food spoilage bacteria are two different things. creaks brain into gear and trawls up long buried information
it takes 20 minutes for one bacteria to become 2. times that by the normal levels of bacteria in food, probably a few thousand/millions quite safely, and then times the 20 minutes by an entire day, you've got potential! Add warmth, moisture, air... all the things bacteria thrive on.

I've never got ill from rice and my mum not only left it out on the side to cool but also had mice running around her kitchen and absolutely no sense of basic hygene ... but I reckon I have a cast-iron immune system!

IMO it's just not worth the risk, because food poisoning can be so serious.

This isn't the first time I've seen this complaint on MN. Whjat is wrong with these Home ec teachers?
I did Cookery in the 70's it was dinner for my family if we did a full meal like the OP. We put it all in tupperware and had names written on the lids. The Cookery teacher had a huge fridge in the store room, and once everything was cool enough she would bung it all in there for the day and we came and collected before going home. No microwaves stuck it all in the oven on warm for an hour or till Mum got in (not in the tupperware obviously)
Don't they have fridges in the class kitchen at the schools any more?
I'd email a complaint to the head of department and to the teacher and who ever else will listen. What a bloody waste.

I cant believe that Ive started a school related thread in AIBU, and I havent had a toasting!

Honestly mango google it. Rice is notorious for causing food poisoning. Another ancient food certificate here. I was when I heard about it too, but I wouldn't risk it.

Mango, you are playing russian roulette with rice!
Im a huge advocate of ditching best before dates, not storing ketchup in the fridge, the sniff test and all that, but there are limitations!

A few years agovan entire team in them Tour de France got ill from rice. They all had patties made of rice in their jersey pockets for carb snacks, and it was a very hot day.

It bugs me that to do Food Tech you have to buy and send in the ingredients - I never had to buy a maths text book, or wood for technology.

And if the school purchased it in eith their usual food order itd be pennies for them anyways!

YANBU, I would complain

mango this NHS website explains why you shouldn't store rice at room temperature

here

Well you learn something every day on here. Does all rice have this bacterium or is it just some types/luck of the draw?