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

submitted 1 month 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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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can't be putting hot food in the fridge, it heats the fridge up.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The danger zone for food is between about 20 to 45 degrees Celsius. You can let hot food cool for an hour or so, but you've gotta get it into the fridge before it spends much time in that zone.

Obviously the amount of time this is a risk varies wildly by food, and some things are actually salty, acidic or fatty enough to limit a lot of bacterial growth for a surprising amount of time. But it's just more sensible to not roll the dice on food safely

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

20 to 45 degrees Celsius

For the Americans, the temperature danger zone is 45 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, so since tomatoes are acidic is that why it's not as big of a deal to let dishes with it cool completely before fridgerating? My ex told me that fridgerating too early makes the tomato go sour, so like chili I try to split into smaller containers to cool more quickly. Still makes me nervous leaving it out too long, but I haven't had issues yet

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Not sure about the sourness thing, but a tomato pasta sauce without meat can probably get away with it a few hours longer, but I'd probably still just pop it into the fridge when it got cool enough anyway.

Chili with meat in, I'd be more careful of.

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

I don't think this applies to modern fridges. They are more than capable of maintaining their desired temperature when hot food is there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I would still be careful, just because the whole fridge doesn't heat up, the food next to the hot item would still warm up, increasing risk.