Reheating takeaway curry

[Comingroundthemountain]

From v nice takeaway near us - fairly sure they cook fresh. Do you reheat your leftovers the next day?

In my case it was at a Chinese buffet and OH and DD ate everything else I did but not the rice.

It wasn't just the upset stomach, but the shakey, fluey feeling as well. I felt really unwell at the time. Luckily it was short lived.

blueshoes it is possible to reheat rice safely, so perhaps the people you know do this? If you put it inside the fridge within an hour of cooking, and then eat it within 24 hours, it should be ok. The problem arises when the rice is left out, lukewarm, for hours, because that is the perfect environment for the bacteria to multiply.
I work in healthcare and I can assure you that it is a real thing, and people get very ill from it. Fortunately it is rare, but it happens.

We always reheat our leftovers, rice included. Sometimes I make sag aloo pasties if there's enough left.
Just wondering if rice puddings or rice in salads is risky too?

Any rice is risky, but all you need to do is cool the rice as quickly as possible and refrigerate it.

Rice salads are notorious for food poisoning. Ok if cooled, refrigerated, and then eaten quickly. Not ok if sat on the side for hours as part of a buffet.

I absolutely believe that it's real, but one thing I have never understood about the advice to cool the rice quickly is the fact that this is at odds with the culture throughout much of Asia where it is kept warm in a rice cooker for ages, and then leftovers are often reused the next day.

I'm genuinely not questioning the fact that it is potentially dangerous, but I can't understand why many more people in countries where rice is a staple don't get sick. Is it possible that they have built up some kind of immunity to the bacteria?

I would guess that if is being kept above a certain temperature (say, 70 degrees ish) in a rice cooker, then the bacteria would not multiply, or at least, not enough to cause illness. This is a guess though, I am hardly a bacteria expert!

I think the difference is the way the rice is cooked. In the Caribbean the rice is steamed until all the water cooks out and it is completely different from English rice which is cooked in boiling water and drained.

In Asian take aways a lot of them have buckets of already cooked rice hanging around the kitchen and the chefs will take a plateful of it out and bung it in the microwave for plain rice or in the frying pan for some sort of seasoned rice. So if you reheat takeaway rice it's reheating reheated rice iykwim?

oh god yet another thing that everyone in the world does but Mumsnet has an issue with

Brandnew most people I know cook rice using the absorption method, and so do I.

Curiosier: "blueshoes it is possible to reheat rice safely, so perhaps the people you know do this?"

Not really. In Singapore where I grew up, there is no warning from the government about re-heating rice, much less any guidance in any form. Nobody thinks anything of it. In school, I had to learn about food hygiene but nothing about re-heating rice or any nasty bacteria.

We are more worried about meat going bad.

Curiouser: "I would guess that if is being kept above a certain temperature (say, 70 degrees ish) in a rice cooker, then the bacteria would not multiply, or at least, not enough to cause illness. This is a guess though, I am hardly a bacteria expert!"

Bacteria thrives in warm temperature, which is below boiling.

I think the best explanation could be Kampeki's that people who grow up in warm countries develop an immunity or tolerance to the bacteria.

Yes, me too - curry and the rice, as long as it's piping hot. Best results from re-heating in the oven rather than in the microwave for some reason... or perhaps that's just me.

Blue shoes sorry I meant she reheated the curry and rice but the rice was lukewarm.

Blueshoes Actually the bacterium in question (bacillus cereus) is generally a mesophilic bacterium, so it grows best at moderate temperatures (generally between 15 and 40 degrees celsius.) Therefore if left on the side at room temperature, the bacteria is at the optimum temperature for it to proliferate, however at temperatures below or above this range growth will slow/stop. I imagine that the rice cookers keep the rice above 40 degrees, so the bacteria doesn't get the chance to rise to high enough levels to cause illness.

The immunity/tolerance idea is probably incorrect. This is because of the subtle difference between food poisoning, and illnesses caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria or viruses. In a true case of food poisoning, symptoms are caused by the toxins produced by the bacteria, not the bacterium itself. This is different from, for example, catching the norovirus because the chef who prepared your food didn't wash his hands, and got virus all over your salad. Therefore, to become immune to eating poorly-stored rice, you wouldn't need to become immune to the bacterium, but the toxins (both the emetic and diarrhoeal forms) it produces (which would be pretty difficult.)

So, people in Asian countries where rice is commonly reheated are probably storing it in such a way that bacterial growth is slowed or stopped, which is why this kind of food poisoning is not widespread there. It is also worth noting that the incidence of food poisoning generally is thought to higher than reports show, because often people do not go to their doctor when they have food poisoning, or they attribute their symptoms to a bug or flu, and not the food they ate. So maybe it is more common than people think.

All very interesting think you.
I didn't fancy it in the end but my 5 yo dd polished it off

Well curiouser, it sounds like you know what you are talking about.

I can assure you that people in Asian countries do not store rice in any particular way. They like to eat it hot but at the same time, it is not unusual for rice to be left out at room temperature. My family treats rice in the UK in the exact same way as I did in Singapore and eat rice as leftovers routinely. Even if something in the practice in Asian rice eating countries is protective, it will not be protective 100% of the time and you should see Asian people coming down with the bug due to the sheer volume and times rice is consumed. However, it is a non-issue.

I cannot explain it and probably will not change my practice.