One of life's greatest pleasures is heating up leftover Chinese food. Little did we know, leftover rice can actually be scarily bad for you. You can get pretty grim food poisoning from eating reheated rice, not because of the microwave, but from the way the rice has been stored after being cooked the first time!
Uncooked rice often contains traces of Bacillus cereus, a bacteria strand that can cause food poisoning, that can survive when rice is cooked. Bacteria can also grow if the rice is left standing at room temperature, producing toxins that can cause extreme vomiting or diarrhea. Bottom line is that the longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that bacteria will grow making the rice unsafe to eat.
It is vital to store rice at the right way-and quickly- if you are hoping to dig into it later! To avoid food poisoning all together, serve the rice as soon as it's been cooked and cool leftovers as quickly as possible, within the hour is recommended. You can keep the rice in the fridge, for no more than one day, before reheating.
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