LOL I think the operative word here is "can survive". In this litigious world food companies put out warnings to cover their cash flow. Because it happened ONCE it is suddenly a label on all packaging. Leftover rice is a mainstay in my world. Never once so much as a tummy rumble. I will continue to take my chances. The waste, the excuses for waste in this country is beyond reason IMHO.

After cooking rice should be immediately eaten and any leftovers should
then be quickly refrigerated and that it shouldn't be reheated more than
once and not kept for more than a day.

That practice would put Chipotle out of business! Along with millions of other Chinese restaurants.

I guess I'm lucky too. I don't usually reheat more than once, but leftovers may last a couple of days. Eating is dangerous!

I should have croaked too. For years I've been cooking rice in the morning, letting it get to room temp and packing it for lunch. I never store it in the fridge at work in order to avoid the rubbery texture it gets there. Actually that's why I cook it in the morning of my risky lunch - to preserve as much as possible the lovely rice texture. We have microwave ovens at work, but I'm scared of them and shun them like the plague.

I'm not Asian, but it's my understanding that a lot of Asians eat rice all day long and keep a big pot of it out all day. Maybe your body builds up an immunity to the bacteria after a while...just as if people would drink from a stream they would get sick but if you had drank from it your whole life, you are perfectly fine.

Maybe it's a ploy from the companies that sell rice to get people to throw away tons of rice so they will go out and buy MORE RICE so the company can make more money!? It's funny that this is the first I've ever heard of it...makes you go "hmmmmmmmmmmmm?"...HAHA!

I've always heard that rice leftovers should be refrigerated. But I am from rice growing country...

I make a big pot of rice every Sunday and eat it all week with meals. I use it in my lunches and I've never had any problems with it.

So Rita are you going to change your rice eating practices?

Guess I should have been dead a long time ago as well :-) If I plan on eating it the next day, sometimes I don't refrigerate leftover rice at all! It gets gummy when refrigerated so I just leave it in the steamer. And then what is not eaten, the dog gets......doesn't seem to bother him, either.

I am not disputing that this could prove harmful but it seems to be overstated. I don't know anyone that has ever experienced this and my family are big rice eaters (my parents and sibs lived in the Far East before I was born). I'd consider it one of those 'what you dont know can't hurt you' situations. Or maybe we have just built up a resistance to the bacteria........

I don't keep rice very long after the initial meal. I freeze it and then it's handy for a quick meal anytime.

I've got 2 chicken breasts in the frig which need to be eaten, from Sunday's meal. I'd better have them tonite.

aok..."eating is dangerous"

ha ha ha

Guess I'm living on "the edge of extinction too".

Lucille, I will probably not change how I eat rice but with my luck, the next time I reheat it we'll wind up in the ER. Just in case you are suspicious that I made this up here is one of the news items online. I actually heard it on the local news this morning and looked it up because I had doubts about it. I mean all my life I've treated rice like bread, no big deal if left out. How many times have I fed it to my chicken because I'd left it out all night or had it in the frig. for a week??
Rice Poisoning

I've heard this before, but since rice is one of my favorite foods and I've been eating it my entire life with no problems, I took it with a grain of salt. Mmmmm - salted rice with butter...

There are times when I think that today's safe food handling practices are a bit over the top. Before anyone pounces on me, yes I know people die of food poisoning every year and that refrigeration and today's modern appliances let us keep food safer and all that.

Since a quick look states that Bacillus cereus is found normally in soils and other places it is not rice specific. Therefore any food probably does have it on/in it. It may depend more on your body's own defenses and/or the temperatures the rice or other foods are kept if you develop a problem

I heard about this when the news came out about the college student who died in from eating leftover pasta that was left at room temperature. They referenced "fried rice syndrome" as carrying the same bacteria.

This sort of thing for me is a if you ever get into a car and go anywhere you can ignore since riding around in a car is way more dangerous and you aren't going to stop doing that. Yes, you could die of food poisoning

Welp, I'm living on borrowed time too lol

Me too -- how come I haven't croaked? I read this on the internet last year and was shocked! Shocked! I always thought it was perfectly safe to leave rice on the stove, I've even done it overnight as my kitchen is cool. So far nobody here has said they got sick from eating old rice, so? Let's hear about it.

4.5 billion Asians can't be wrong :-) Or still alive and kicking if this was such a widespread phenomenon!! As I wrote previously, I think the risk is grossly overstated.

Hm... If our belief is that cooked rice keeps, have we not gotten the illness, or just ascribed it to something else. I believe that the one bad bout of food poisoning I got was from eating a salad with sour cream on it, on a hot afternoon, at a major league ballpark. But big public venues like that are usually very good about food safety. They have to be. For all I know, it could have been something else in the salad, or something I'd eaten earlier in the day, or, from what I've read, even something I'd eaten 10 days prior. I didn't have it cultured or anything. I was young and strong, knew how to treat it, and just had a miserable couple of days.

I eat rice infrequently. Sometimes I'll keep the (very good) rice that comes with Chinese delivery for many days in the fridge and use it in a casserole. No issues. :)

Leave rice out long enough, you get rice wine.

dcarch

OH God ---- I should have been dead eons ago if I listened to the "germaphobes" --- or "expiration date Die Hards " . My God -- look at it - smell it - even taste a little bit . I GUARANTEE you won't die . Sheesh ....

Just in case you are suspicious that I made this up

Ritaweeda it never even occurred to me that you would do that. I don't believe everything I read on the internet, but with just a few notable and probable guessable exceptions, I have a pretty high level of trust toward the people in this group.

I think some of the posts in the perennial 'best by' date threads shows that some people might think differently about left out rice vs, for instance, outdated rice?

With all of the stuff that we're throwing out - food, short-life appliances, which is to get worse as many of this rapidly expanding world population who couldn't afford them before but are getting them now -

- I hear that mankind (no, "humankind") .........

......... is getting close to becoming an endangered species (if not there, already).

ole joyfuelled

I don't think, in 62 years I have ever had food poisoning! I leave my rice out, rinse my chicken in the sink, cut my chicken then cut veges on the same cutting board (I DO rinse it in between uses), defrost meats on the counter etc etc etc

add me to the list.... I left my rice on the counter to cool off, and will eat the left over stuff tomorrow... including the rice.

:)

Moni

According to one site I read from it says that you may leave anything out for up to two hours if it is hot. I have left rice and pasta out for longer than that but usually not all night.

According to this website it says it's best to freeze cooked rice to have it last. Cooked rice frozen apparently last up to six months. I usually only freeze recipes with rice in it though. I usually don't have any left over plain brown rice with my group.

I put my uncooked rice in the freezer as well.

https://www.simplyhealthyfamily.org/freeze-uncooked-rice/

It is true. But note the keywords...may contain spores of Bacillus cereus, ...some uncooked rice can survive when rice is cooked...'may', 'some', 'can'. It is the length of time in a zone of certain temps where the bacteria, if it exists, will multiply rapidly.

Some copy writers know allot about nothing or very little about many things. Copy/pasting, parroting something written, then using 'click-bait' for on-line hits. "Your rice just might kill you!".

Our systems deal easily with daily bacteria if active and healthy. I would just bank the knowledge and keep it in mind if an elderly neighbor or family member is not feeling well. Or a grandchild curls up on the couch with a fever. Rice is thought of as a comfort food. Just make them a fresh bowl if rice sounds good to them. Their systems are already taxed/compromised fighting off whatever they are suffering from.

I make a mixed grain and often a bean every weekend. When done I take out what I plan to keep for the next day in a glass bowl and toss in a couple ice cubes to help chill it down, then fridge or freeze within the hour. Set stews and stocks in a second bowl of ice to chill quickly...

Only an average of 10-15% of chickens cary salmonella buy why roll the dice. Or that baked potato wrapped in foil. (I don't foil wrap potatoes). Potential for illness if sitting out or in a cooler without oxygen room temp. A caterer baked an oven full of foil wrapped potatoes, turned off the oven, then made potato salad the next day. Sickened an entire party.

Serve food hot, and chill food quickly for later. Or freeze. Or do as you always do with a good rock gut digestive system. Just think twice if serving others. Especially pot-lucks. Health Dept. testing has become easier to find the faulty food.

Or you could simply choke on a grain of rice and it'll kill you too. :) If I stopped eating everything science tells me will kill me, I'll die of starvation.

I think it is a matter of degree. If I left potato salad with mayo outdoors in the Texas heat overnight I would throw it out. I personally feel it is cheaper and less painful to throw questionable stuff out than to go to the emergency room with food poisoning. But it is all in what you consider questionable, for instance, I have never heard rice discussed (until this thread) when people discuss home food poisoning.

flash freeze your rice on a sheet pan after cooking ... then bag and freeze ...

or make 'rice cubes'

I wonder if there is a KT in Heaven where we can talk about how we croaked and whether we should have refrigerated.

It never occurred to me to worry about rice. I do worry a little bit about bacteria in the soil when I garden.