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20-Year-Old Dies From 'Fried Rice Syndrome' After Eating Leftover Pasta (www.iheart.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The bacteria is best known for causing a type of food poisoning called "Fried Rice Syndrome," since rice is sometimes cooked and left to cool at room temperature for a few hours. During that time, the bacteria can contaminate it and grow. B. cereus is especially dangerous because it produces a toxin in rice and other starchy foods that is heat resistant and may not die when the food it infects is cooked.

And

Unfortunately, that was the case for a 20-year-old student, who passed away after eating five-day-old pasta.

His story was described in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology a few years back, but has since resurfaced due to some YouTube videos and Reddit posts. According to article, every Sunday the student would make his meals for the entire week so he wouldn't need to deal with making it on the weekdays. One Sunday, he cooked up some spaghetti, then put it in Tupperware containers so that days later, he could just add some sauce to it, reheat it and enjoy it.

However, he didn't store the pasta in the fridge, rather he left it out on the counter. After five days of the food sitting out at room temperature, he heated some up and ate it. While he noticed an odd taste to the food, he figured it was just due to the new tomato sauce he added to it.

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[–] TrickDacy 33 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This thread is interesting. Everywhere ranging from "I eat pizza from the counter after 3 days" to "yeah I would never eat anything left out on the counter for over 2 hours".

And someone said everything in their fridge is food they cooked over 5 days ago.... Why??

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And someone said everything in their fridge is food they cooked over 5 days ago…

I've been doing this for years and years. Maybe not wayyy more than 5 days but it is usually about a week. I don't have all that much time after work so I don't want to waste time cooking and I'm not wasting money on take out so I do all my cooking for the week on Saturday or Sunday. I don't do what the poor kid in the article did though, if anything I put things in the fridge that are still way too hot but I never wanted to risk something like that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

if anything I put things in the fridge that are still way too hot but I never wanted to risk something like that.

It's better for food hygiene to go from hot to cold as fast as possible, it reduces the time it spends at the optimal temperatures for bacteria to grow. That's what we do for example when we sterilize milk, tomato, etc.
If your fridge can handle it, it's not a problem AFAIK

[–] Crashumbc 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah the only concern is if you put too much hot food in at once or your fridge isn't good, it can warm up other food in the fridge and cause it to spoil faster.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I can't verify this, but I've heard that modern fridges are better at maintaining cold air temp and so there's an outdated concern for putting hot food in your fridge. Just don't have your hot food touching another highly perishable food item.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even with older fridges, I feel like it's a mostly unfounded concern; yeah sure, don't go putting 15 liters of boiling soup in the fridge, but if you put 500g of cooked pasta into a 300l fridge, it's not going to care. Bear in mind that the other food in the fridge also acts as a negative calories storage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

That tracks with me. My rule of thumb is if you can hold the container with your bare hands long enough to get it in the fridge, it's not hot

[–] TrickDacy 2 points 2 months ago

You're probably right except in cases of heavy and especially heat-holding foods. in other words: May not be the best idea to put your still piping hot big pot of soup in the fridge

[–] Dogs_cant_look_up 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cook it, seal it, put it in the fridge. 5 days is fine.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

even better: freezer

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Can just be a bit less convenient, depending.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you meal prep and know what you're doing, 5 days is not outrageous.

[–] TrickDacy 1 points 2 months ago

Yes, but that's where the freezer comes in. We really should not be eating too many food items after being cooked then hanging in the fridge over 5 days. I consider myself a lot less concerned about this kind of thing than most people but I would tap out usually after 5-6 days. Seems risky and definitely not a habit I wanna get into.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 1 points 2 months ago

The thing with food safety is that the rate of occurrence may be low in some cases, but the consequences can be extremely high or fatal. And eating is an activity that is repeated often. So following safe practices is extremely important.