Louisiana, Avoid Doing This With Your Leftover Rice

Crowley, Louisiana is the rice capital of the United States, which explains why we have a habit of throwing everything over rice down here in Louisiana. Rice and gravy, Jambalaya, and Sticky chicken, just to name a few, would not be complete with out rice.

Chances are you have some left over rice in your refrigerator right now from making one of your favorite Louisiana meals or maybe you meal prep a ton of rice ahead of time for your meals for the week.

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Either way, if you typically eat rice that's days old you are going to want to hear this, well maybe you won't want to hear it, but you need to.

Can You Really Get Sick From Eating Leftover Rice?

According to Medical News Today, Eating leftover rice can indeed lead to food poisoning if it's not handled properly. The culprit isn't necessarily the reheating process itself, but rather the conditions in which the rice was stored before reheating.

Here's how it can happen:

1. Bacillus cereus Spores: Uncooked rice may contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a type of bacteria known to cause food poisoning. These spores can withstand the cooking process.
2. Room Temperature Storage: If cooked rice is left at room temperature, these spores have the opportunity to grow into bacteria. As the bacteria multiply, they may produce toxins that can lead to illness when consumed.
3. Toxin Production: The longer cooked rice sits at room temperature, the greater the likelihood that the bacteria will produce toxins that render the rice unsafe to eat.
4. Symptoms: Vomiting occurring between 30 minutes to 6 hours after ingestion, or diarrhea appearing 6 to 15 hours afterwards. Typically, the symptoms are relatively mild and last around 24 hours.

Tips to Avoid Food Poisoning From Rice:

• Serve Fresh: Ideally, serve rice immediately after it's been cooked to minimize the time it spends at room temperature.

• Rapid Cooling: If serving immediately isn't possible, cool the rice as quickly as you can, ideally within one hour after cooking.

• Refrigeration: Store leftover rice promptly in the refrigerator, and ensure it's consumed within one day before reheating.

• Thorough Reheating: When reheating rice, make sure it reaches a steaming hot temperature all the way through to kill any bacteria present.

• Avoid Reheating Multiple Times: Do not reheat rice more than once, as this can further increase the risk of bacterial growth and toxin production.