How long to keep cooked rice

stephen77

I think rice is some thing its more important to chill to under 5c with in 4 hours of being heated. Once under 5c the food poisoning risk is a lot less.
The risk associated with rice have been when its kept warm for long peroids of time as they do in chineese take aways etc.

From work experience. I have seen boiled rice given 10 days life. THough for what I using it for it went to hard after a few days (I was using it cold). If you re-heat may still have a good texture when heated again.

Edwardia

I'm somewhat aghast to read that someone is using ten day old rice, I hope you weren't feeding it to humans !

Unless takeaway food is cooked in front of you then yes please do assume it is batch cooked and reheated as required. So to be on the safe side, don't reheat it.

Sometimes the desire to save money is stupid when it's at the risk of your health.

I went out to a pub for dinner and because they didn't wash the veg I got e.coli 0157 which meant being carted off to hospital in ambulance, as my stomach was bleeding. I was on a drip for several days and in hospital in an isolation ward for a week. If I'd been a young child or elderly person I might not have survived. It wasn't a fun experience as besides the nausea, diarrhoea, bleeding and fever I had my blood pressure and temperature taken every two hours at first (later every 3 hrs) 24/7 so didn't get much sleep either.

It's possible to be very ill from food poisoning and if you can't afford to take time off work because you get sick pay and holiday pay included in your hourly rate, it could really affect your income and your future health.

s_b

i would rather eat my own left leg rather than reheated boiled rice
im sure i read last year in the papers it caused a death

stephen77

Edwardia wrote: »

I'm somewhat aghast to read that someone is using ten day old rice, I hope you weren't feeding it to humans !


Sometimes the desire to save money is stupid when it's at the risk of your health.


.

It was fed to humans.
This would have been boiled and then chilled to under 5c with in 4 hours.
This would have been backed up with microbiological testing as well. That would have been tested to approx 12 days and the results would be safe

Owain_Moneysaver

stephen77 wrote: »

It was fed to humans.
This would have been boiled and then chilled to under 5c with in 4 hours.
This would have been backed up with microbiological testing as well. That would have been tested to approx 12 days and the results would be safe

This probably occurred in far more hygienic premises that a typical take-away.

The ready-cooked Uncle Bens and similar microwaveable rice dishes in pouches must have similar or greater shelf life and isn't even refrigerated.

Tamsin_Temrin

We have a lot of takeaways from there. Not mse but very tasty, and the rice was included in the price of a meal. I should have used it up the day after, but after reading all the links (ewwwww!) I shall feed any spare rice to the birds.

Anyway, the food from there has always been okay. You can see in to the kitchen. Ill keep eating there, just not reheating the rice.

thegirlintheattic

I think the official guidance is chill it to under 5 degrees C within an hour and eat within 24 hours, and of course only reheat once. If you're not sure if it has already been reheated then it's best to chuck it - as people have said rice is cheap.

The microwaved rice dishes are packed in a protective environment so it's a different matter than takeout rice.

socks_uk

I also never touch rice dishes at buffets (nor prawn dishes either) as you never know how long it has been out of the fridge prior to it being set on the buffet table. I learned about rice causing food poisoning when I took my Food Hygiene Course - my friends often don't believe me!

Tamsin_Temrin

The more I read, the more I think next time Ill have chips.

Thanks to all who have posted, its been an eye opener!

socks_uk

A Chinese friend of mine, whose parents have a Chinese Takeaway, says that to make fried rice at home you need to steam the rice and once cooked put it in a sieve and run the cold tap over it to chill it enough to put in the fridge within 5 minutes of cooking. Fried rice is made with pre-cooked rice chilled overnight.