How to Store Cooked Rice Safely, Doctors Say: Watch Time and Temperature
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- A doctor warns that cooked rice left at room temperature can allow Bacillus cereus spores to grow and produce toxins that may survive reheating.
- Risk rises when rice cools slowly, sits out over two hours, is stored for days, or is reheated multiple times; symptoms can hit within 30 minutes to six hours.
- For safety, refrigerate promptly (around 4°C), eat within 24–48 hours, and reheat only once until steaming hot.
Rice is a staple carbohydrate for many households and is often cooked in large batches, then stored for lunchboxes or later meals.
However, Maryland-based anesthesiology and interventional pain management specialist Dr. Kunal Sood warned that poorly stored cooked rice can pose a food-safety risk.
“If cooked rice is left at room temperature, spores can germinate, and the bacteria then produce toxins directly in the food,” Sood said, as quoted by Hindustan Times on Monday (Feb. 16).
Sood noted a common assumption that cooking and reheating rice automatically makes it safe to eat. In reality, rice often contains spores of Bacillus cereus, which can survive heat more effectively than many other bacteria.
While reheating may kill the bacteria, the toxins they produce can still remain.
As a result, the rice can make someone ill even if it looks and smells fine.
Symptoms tend to appear quickly—often within 30 minutes to six hours—with nausea and vomiting among the most common complaints.
Sood said the risk of bacterial contamination increases in several situations, including when rice cools too slowly or is refrigerated too late, when it is left out of the fridge for more than two hours, when it is stored for days, or when it is warmed repeatedly.
He added that chilling rice in the refrigerator can cause some starch to convert into resistant starch, a type of fiber, and that reheating it may lower calories and help keep blood sugar more stable.
“Prevention is all about time and temperature,” Sood said.
Following practical storage steps can reduce the chance that pre-cooked rice becomes harmful to health.
According to Sood, the safest window to eat cooked rice is within 24 to 48 hours, and it should be reheated only once—until it is thoroughly hot and steaming.
He also advised cooling rice soon after cooking, or transferring it to another container and cooling it within about one hour at .
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