DS Forums

 
 

Reheating cooked rice


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 16-11-2010, 18:44
JPDorsetDS
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 334

I've been eating reheated cooked rice since forever.

So there I was last Monday night, watching Jimmy' Food Factory; whilst tucking in to some re-heated cooked rice when he announces that you should never re-heat cooked rice because it's well dodgy.

Well is it or not?

I've left it out for hours after a takeaway and eaten it the next day with no ill effects, cooked my own rice dishes then put half in the fridge for tomorrow - or 2 or 3 days later - and still never got the shits.

So is it really a bad idea or what?
JPDorsetDS is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 16-11-2010, 18:49
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
I'm like you. I've heard that you should always thouroughly reheat rice but have never had a problem with it.

Egg fried rice would be no more.



I wonder if it is one of those food myths that gets put around and people keep publicising it instead of doing proper research into it properly.

Other examples are of closed muscles and MSG.
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:01
DenizenOfSW3
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: London, SW3
Posts: 1,040
Jimmy is obviously talking nonsense.

Has he not seen the plethora of ready cooked rice sachets in every supermarket up and down the country?
DenizenOfSW3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:13
jojo01
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 9,215
The only time I have ever had fod poisoning was a few years back when I reheated a Chinese meal and didn't reheat the rice thoroughly enough!

I've heard that rice should be cooled as quickly as possible and then reheated at a later stage, but making sure it's reheated thoroughly. I now cook a pot of rice for dinner, and freeze half of it to use on another day.
jojo01 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:22
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
Jimmy is obviously talking nonsense.

Has he not seen the plethora of ready cooked rice sachets in every supermarket up and down the country?
That was the point of the segment. He toured a ready meal rice factory.

I get that they have to make sure everything is sterilised and hygenic in a factory but his initial statement was a bit OTT and it's not life or death in most cases to eat reheated rice.
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:35
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
Here is the segment from Jimmy's Food Factory
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...Flash/?t=9m25s
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:38
xx~KC~xx
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 1,346
Most basic food and hygiene classes will say never to reheat rice but personally I've been doing it forever as well and it's never effected me. Now to go and shave my beard.
xx~KC~xx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 19:39
JPDorsetDS
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 334
Way too over-dramatic on reflection.

Lost count of the number of times he says "can" and "could" not "does" and "will" in that segment.
JPDorsetDS is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:11
rjb101
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 2,609
From the food standards agency.

I've heard that reheating rice can cause food poisoning. Is this true?
It's true that you could get food poisoning from eating reheated rice. But it's not actually the reheating that's the problem – it's the way the rice has been stored before reheating.

Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive. Then, if the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores will germinate into bacteria. These bacteria will multiply and may produce toxins (poisons) that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. Reheating the rice won't get rid of these toxins.

So, the longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that bacteria, or the toxins they produce, could stop the rice being safe to eat.

It's best to serve rice when it has just been cooked. If that isn't possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within one hour) and keep it in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.

Remember that when you reheat any food, you should always check that it's steaming hot all the way through, and avoid reheating more than once.




How I manged not die after eating cold chinese/indian food the morning after a night out I'm not sure...
rjb101 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:16
boozer3
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 2,360
Yeah it's the cooling of the rice after it's been cooked. You'll see Chinese/Japanese cooks wafting it with a fan to cool it more quickly.
boozer3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:29
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
From the food standards agency.

I've heard that reheating rice can cause food poisoning. Is this true?
It's true that you could get food poisoning from eating reheated rice. But it's not actually the reheating that's the problem – it's the way the rice has been stored before reheating.

Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive. Then, if the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores will germinate into bacteria. These bacteria will multiply and may produce toxins (poisons) that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. Reheating the rice won't get rid of these toxins.

So, the longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that bacteria, or the toxins they produce, could stop the rice being safe to eat.

It's best to serve rice when it has just been cooked. If that isn't possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within one hour) and keep it in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.

Remember that when you reheat any food, you should always check that it's steaming hot all the way through, and avoid reheating more than once.




How I manged not die after eating cold chinese/indian food the morning after a night out I'm not sure...
bacteria kills humans -> beer kills bacteria -> humans like beer
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:38
SeasideLady
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Aberdeenshire
Posts: 15,471
If I make too much chilli / curry and rice, we just put the un - served portion in a pyrex dish, cover it with clingfilm and store it in the fridge, as soon as it's cooled. When we want to eat some of it, we just take some out and zapp it for 3 minutes on high in the microwave. This might go on for a couple more days until it's all gone, and we've never fallen ill.
SeasideLady is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:41
Melanie858
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Letchworth
Posts: 3,446
It's fine to reheat, it's just that it shouldn't be left out too long at room temperature. It needs to be cooled quickly to prevent the natural spores in the rice forming toxins (which can really give you serious food poisoning). Obviously like all food poisoning bacteria, it's just a potential risk - it won't always give you food poisoning if you don't cool it quickly enough etc.

I saw jimmy's food factory too, and he didn't say not to reheat rice, just that it wouldn't kill the toxins if they had already formed in the rice from not cooling it quickly enough.
Melanie858 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-11-2010, 21:43
Menk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 10,825
I guess like a lot of things, normal healthy adults will be able to withstand a certain amount of harmful bacteria, but the need to be cautious (over-cautious?) is to protect the very young, the old and people who may have low resilience for a number of other reasons.
Menk is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:28.