Reheating rice: Is it safe and should you do it?

Eating rice that's been reheated can cause food poisoning

When you can’t be bothered to spend ages in the kitchen making yourself dinner, reheating some leftovers that you’ve been keeping in the fridge may seem like a logical thing to do.

However, if the leftovers that you’ve been storing in the fridge are made from rice, then reheating them in the microwave may not be a wise course of action.

It’s commonly believed that reheating rice can be detrimental for your health, as it can lead to a bout of food poisoning.

However, has this claim been verified, or is it a culinary myth?

According to the NHS, rice can be reheated after it’s been cooked, but only during a short window of time.

The NHS states that rice should be eaten promptly after it’s been cooked.

However, if you’re not able to eat your rice right away, you should make sure that it cools down within the space of an hour.

Once rice that’s been cooked has been kept in the fridge, the NHS then recommends not waiting longer than a day before reheating it.

It also advises never reheating rice more than once, and making sure that the rice is steaming hot all the way through before consumption.

If you do experience food poisoning following the consumption of reheated rice, then this is likely to have been caused by the presence of the bacterium Bacillus cereus.

Bacillus cereus is a bacterium that’s often found in soil and various types of food, including rice.

Cooking rice doesn’t necessarily kill the bacterium, so when rice is then left to cool at room temperature, the Bacillus cereus can then multiply and become harmful if consumed.

If you become ill after eating reheated rice, symptoms will usually start to appear after a period of one to five hours.

These symptoms may include nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea and will usually last for around a day.