Rice - can you keep it for later?

[Laura032004]

DS is on a gluten & wheat free diet, so has porridge made from millet and rice flakes (from Sainsburys). This is a pain to make up, so could I make lots of it and keep some for later?

Also, he has basmati rice in his tea most evenings, same question - could I make giant portions and freeze some for later?

Look forward to your answers, or any pointers to information, as I'm sure there is a problem with reheating rice, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.

Thanks

I am not sure about freezing rice but I know for definite that you should not keep rice very long and be careful about reheating it. Whenever I have any left over, I always throw it out because I know I won't use it in time.

Might this help you?
Rice

freezing is fine as long as it is only re-heated once and is thoroughly heated through so to kill any bacteria then allowed to cool so it is ok temperature to eat.

probably going to be majorly proved wrong here, but i always freeze leftiver rice and make sure it is defrosted thoroughly and pour boiling water over it!... no ill effects yet, but i bet someone will give a reason why thats bad! ... i know you shouldnt keep it for long after you have cooked it because of the risk of food poisoning, something about rice grains having a large surface area for their volume and therefore being a bigger place for nasty bacteria!

Think it's keeping it hanging around in the fridge that's dodgy - mind you, I always do that at home & no-one's died yet! But when I had a pub, rice was always one of the things Environmenmtal Health obsessed about - we were advised to freeze individual portions & defrost/re-heat thoroughly in microwave, so that's possibly the safest thing for you to do for ds?

I freeze rice and reheat it throughly. I also have it overnight in the fridge and also reheat thoroughly. I also make rice salads too. Have never been ill yet. There is some strain of rice food poisoning but I thought that happened when you kept it half warm for ages. Sorry if it says that in your link.

cold rice is fine the problem i think is when it is partially heated which then encourages the bacteria. heated right through kills that and cold hasn't been able to grow.

According to the link and other links I found, the key is to cool the rice quickly and if you are going to reheat it, reheat it in small portions to ensure it is reheated thoroughly.

That's all really useful, thankyou. Thanks for the link too Lonelymum - very informative. This will save me cooking a tiny pan of rice every night! Will definitely not scrimp on reheating rice from the supermarket after reading the info!

I know loads of people have posted, but just to add my support to the 'freezing rice' brigade - I freeze rice in small portions and keep it in the fridge for a day. I reheat thoroughly in the microwave or as fried rice - no-one's been ill yet. I wouldn't reheat takeaway rice, though.....