Why might leftover rice give you food poisoning?
When you think of foods that are likely to give you a tummy upset if they are not cooked properly, what springs to mind? Red meat? Eggs? Chicken?
Yes, all of the above can potentially harbour strains of bacteria that, if eaten, can cause illness.
Basically if the bacteria are not killed as the food is cooked or reheated, or if the bugs go on to contaminate raw foods that are then eaten, there can be a problem.
But there’s another food on the list that may not seem so obvious: rice, particularly if it is reheated.
Why? Because it can occasionally be home to a bacterium called Bacillus cereus, some strains of which can cause food-borne illness.
The tricky thing about B. cereusis that it can form spores that may be heat resistant. But the better news is that, unlike some food poisoning bugs such as particular variants of E.coli, it takes a lot of individual B. cereus bacteria to cause illness in humans.
Like many food-borne disease-causing microbes, B. cereuswreaks its intestinal havoc by producing toxins, which might even be preformed while it is still on the rice.
Overall, it’s not a terribly common culprit in food-borne disease, but to be on the safe side, make sure rice is thoroughly cooked and not sitting around at temperatures of under 60 degrees, keep leftovers in the fridge for no longer than three days and, if you are reheating cooked rice, do it quickly and in small portions.
