Meals poisoning – we’ve most likely all had it, and don’t ever wish to get it once more. Now it appears the web has a brand new technique for avoiding it: by no means eat reheated rice.

“Being a med pupil means by no means having the ability to comfortably reheat rice ever once more,” Janny Garcia, a TikToker and second-year medical pupil, captioned a viral TikTok of microwaving rice.

One other TikTok video made by the account for recipe web site Food52 stitched the video, with meals editor Em Ziemski including that the sort of meals poisoning might be very severe. “Hospital employees say it’s among the worst circumstances of meals poisoning they’ve ever seen,” Em says within the publish. “It could possibly result in dying.”

As customers on X, previously often called Twitter, added their personal tales to Em’s feedback, it appeared that reheated rice was on its solution to being canceled, for the great of our stomachs and lives. However is “reheated rice syndrome” actually that harmful? We requested meals security consultants, who informed us all the pieces you could know to not by accident get sick out of your leftover rice.

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How reheated rice could make you sick

The kind of meals poisoning that you simply often get from reheated rice is from a micro organism known as Bacillus Cereus, or B. cereus, which within the balmy, damp setting of heat rice, releases its explicit toxin.

“Bacillus cereus is exclusive within the bacterial world,” Keith Schneider, a professor within the Division of Meals Science and Diet on the College of Florida, informed Mashable. “It is one of many few micro organism that may be a spore-forming microorganism.”

Whereas the warmth from microwaving your leftovers will kill most illness-causing micro organism in meals, B. cereus spores are heat-resistant, mentioned Schneider. So merely making an attempt to fry the lingering micro organism received’t aid you.

B. cereus micro organism grown in a lab.
Credit score: Smith Assortment / Gado / Getty Pictures

B. Cereus grows finest between 39 levels Fahrenheit (4 levels Celsius) and 118 levels Fahrenheit (48 levels Celsius), in keeping with the FDA. As soon as the micro organism has colonized your meal, it turns into fairly tough to eliminate these spores.

“Warmth-resistant endospores of this micro organism usually tend to survive cooking and begin rising once more (germinate) when the meals is cooled progressively over an prolonged time frame,” Kalmia Kniel, a professor and affiliate chair of the division of Animal and Meals Sciences on the College of Delaware, informed Mashable.

Easy methods to keep away from “reheated rice syndrome”

Regardless of the hardiness of its spores, getting poisoned by B. cereus isn’t an inevitable a part of consuming leftover rice. There are a couple of easy steps you’ll be able to take that often forestall the micro organism’s spores from invading your physique, beginning by cooking your rice correctly, mentioned Schneider.

“Then, do not let it sit out on the counter for greater than two hours,” he mentioned. Leaving the nice and cozy rice out at room temperature is what offers the B. cereus micro organism the chance to get into the meals and begin establishing itself.

“Do not let it sit out on the counter for greater than two hours”

Likewise, cooling your rice rapidly by placing it within the fridge straight or shortly after it’s cooked retains the micro organism from germinating, mentioned Kniel.

One other solution to forestall B. cereus contamination is to make your rice extra acidic, mentioned Shneider. Simply as B. cereus can’t germinate within the chilly, it can also’t invade meals which are too acidic. Including rice wine vinegar to sushi rice is a technique to do that, he mentioned. Actually, he added, improperly ready sushi rice that has been sitting out at room temperature may be extra of a meals security hazard than the uncooked fish in sushi.

How severe is fooding poisoning from B. cereus?

Regardless of your finest efforts, B. cereus would possibly nonetheless make you sick. Meals like sushi and fried rice might be the wrongdoer, however so may a number of different meals, together with pasta, meats, and sauces.

There are two important kinds of B. cereus meals poisoning – the emetic sort, which suggests it causes vomiting, and the diarrheal sort. Whereas the emetic sort is attributable to consuming the spores in meals, the diarrheal sort is often attributable to B. cereus rising within the small gut, mentioned Kniel.

“Simply be cautious.”

No matter which kind you get, you shouldn’t be too involved, Elliot Ryser, a professor emeritus of Meals Science and Human Diet at Michigan State College, informed Mashable. Whereas it is true which you can be hospitalized and, theoretically, die from B. cereus meals poisoning, it’s totally unusual. Pregnant folks, the very younger and really previous, and people who find themselves immune-compromised are extra susceptible to B. cereus poisoning.

Nonetheless, in keeping with the CDC, of the 63,000 circumstances of B. cereus meals poisoning reported between 2000 and 2008, there have been solely 20 hospitalizations and no deaths. A 2023 research that checked out B. cereus in China discovered extra hospitalizations, over 2,000, between 2010 and 2020, however nonetheless documented solely 5 fatalities. In the event you do get sick, simply be sure to drink plenty of water, mentioned Kniel, and also you’ll seemingly be effective. And so long as you retailer your rice appropriately, chances are you’ll by no means should take care of B. cereus within the first place.

“Simply be cautious,” mentioned Ryser.