Ripped parts of the post:
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.
Misleading title. He didn’t eat leftovers. He was eating rancid, spoiled food that had been left out for 5 days. He was eating garbage.
Leftovers are when you store food in the fridge for a few days in a container.
I’m surprised there wasn’t any mold after 5 days of being kept unrefrigerated.
Rancidity is unlikely to be a factor here, as it primarily affects foods high in unsaturated fats when exposed to oxygen over an extended period. Leftovers stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for just a few days won’t experience significant oxidation to cause rancidity.
I think emptiestplace is correct. Rancidity is oxidation of fat. Highly saturated fats are very resistant to oxidation (it take a bit much energy to oxidize fully saturated fats)
Beef tallow is highly saturated and is shelf stable for years
This is such a fuckin non story. Dude left cooked food out unrefridgerated and got sick and died. No fuckin shit. We have places to keep cooked food cold for a fuckin reason. Stupid ass article trying to scare people about fuckin leftovers. Fuck this piece of shit ass article and the twat that wrote it.
I genuinely know of an individual who believes refrigeration is a hoax and a conspiracy. He refrigerates nothing. Milk in the cabinets. I guess it’s just big refrigerator trying to manipulate us?
You might not know this person for very long
He’s not the healthiest and looks like absolute shit. Lmao. In his 60s now probably
I’m amazed he has lasted this long, is he at least storing things in a larder / cool room?
Only way I think he survives is that his entire house is below 40 F (4.4 C)
What the fuck. He thinks refrigeration is a hoax, yet keeps his house at refrigerator temperatures???
Maybe he lives in greenland or ? idk, I wonder what would he say if he were to move to like Thailand or somewhere that gets close to 100 humidity
What about freezing, does he also think that does nothing?
Nah honestly given the difference in danger depending on the food this isn’t bad to know. I’m familiar with pasta turning into a weird consistency with weird smell and I always threw it away when that happens, but since it’s not disgusting per se I’d probably have eaten it in a pinch (unlike, say, moldy food or meat that’s been sitting for a while).
I also know of people with some insnae aversion to wasting food that lends them to claim moldy meat is still good to eat (mother of a friend) so if anyone is in a situation with someone like that it’s good to be aware of how dangerous some foods that might not seem as bad are.
Yeah, what you leave out is more important than how long you leave it for. This particular bacteria is only going to be a problem if you leave out the perfect medium for it to grow.
It’s actually pretty hard for dangerous bacteria to grow in most foods, usually there’s not either not enough moisture or too much moisture, or the pH is too acidic and the bacteria will get outcompeted by things like environmental lactic acid bacteria, yeast, or even mold.
If the food you want to save contains moisture and isn’t preserved via acid, salt, or sugar, please store it in the refrigerator.
I heard 5 day leftovers and thought. “5 day fridge leftovers might give you the runs but won’t kill you” then I read the article. That’s not leftovers, that’s garbage. Dude was eating rancid garbage
Exactly. Most cooked foods are just plain nasty by that point if left out at room temperature.
However, he didn’t store the pasta in the fridge, rather he left it out on the counter.
Oh, okay. And I was worried for a moment that it could happen to me…
Fr I also got scared until I realized the guy is just an idiot. Who eats food that that has been left OUTSIDE for 5 days. How did it not stink or taste sour?
How did it not stink or taste sour?
OP was kind enough to summarize the article into 3-4 short paragraphs, one of which answers your question.
Here:
While he noticed an odd taste to the food, he figured it was just due to the new tomato sauce he added to it.
B. Cereus is no joke!
This guy had that…he pasta way, though.
That’s actually a good one.
OK, so we can set the benchmark for danger at 5 days of room temperature.
Thanks random test subject. And RIP.
I’m trying to sympathy for the victim but I just can’t.
5 day old, room temp pasta, is simply unforgivable
Dude eats like a raccoon
Maybe try a bit harder. This is a very easy mistake to make if you don’t cook often. He was twenty. So maybe you can keep your bullshit deep inside and say nothing if you have nothing substantial to say. People don’t live and die for your fucking approval.
I’ve definitely been this level of stupid, just luckier, so I have enough sympathy for the both of us.
Dude was eating moldy or rotten food. There’s no way that he couldn’t taste something wrong with it. Probably thought, “This tastes bad but whatever.” Remember people, do not go “whatever” when it comes to food.
If it tastes bad, is slimy, was left out for a long time (dairy or egg more than 2 hours, moist food more than 4 hours, dry baked goods more than 12 hours), then throw it out. We have coolers and fridges for a reason. To slow down bacterial growth to preserve food for some short term future. Freezers for a lot longer. Use the freaking tools you’ve been given.
I don’t think it was slimy. But he noticed a weird taste, but thought that it came from his new tomato sauce he tried(that’s what’s written in the article)
This what happens when parents serve terrible food to their kids. This kids palate never developed beyond McDonald’s fries and chicken tendies.
Ive been told you MUST let rice cool on the counter before putting it in the fridge. My brother in Christ, that’s how you die.
Letting it cool for like 2-3 hours is perfectly fine, putting large quantities of near boiling hot stuff in the fridge might warm it up and decrease the lifespan of other stuff in the fridge.
That opening paragraph implies something different from the final paragraph (of the bit OP posted in this thread). Opening paragraph says a few hours, but the guy left his pasta out for the full 5 fucking days between cooking and eating it.
I’m one that generally prefers to not waste food but I won’t touch pasta or rice that I’ve accidentally left out overnight. Wtf was wrong with that guy?
Letting stuff cool a little is better for your fridge though. I don’t think you run much of a risk from an hour or two, bacterial growth starts slow and accelerates exponentially.
It’s more than that.
If you don’t let it cool, you risk warming the other food you have already cooled to unsafe levels.
I’m pretty sure refrigeration of hot, bulk preparation items are a reason why your local restaurants get shut down or get violations.
I actually first typed out a paragraph with my thoughts that this could be an issue, but wasn’t sure enough of myself to post it and deleted it. Thanks for inadvertently confirming my suspicion!
I hadn’t even thought of restaurants, but it’s interesting this can be an issue even with their larger fridges.
…no it isn’t.
be serious.
5 days is fucking absurd
nobody ever accused bacteria of making sense
That shits why I microwave leftovers.
(And dont leave it out on the counter for a week).
that is heat resistant and may not die when the food it infects is cooked.
Keep leftovers in the fridge, consume them quickly and discard if you observe odd smell, taste or right wing leanings.
fried wings are the worst leftover food given you have to throw out half of them 😓
There’s a thick line between being resistant to heat and being resistant to high energy waves of radiation.
But yes refrigerate and throw out weird uncles.
Any reason to think that the toxin, which is not a living organism, is weak against energy waves?
Well because this is B, Cereus and not B, Cytotoxicus that means the Toxin isn’t a protein but an active spore culture (yes this bacteria makes spores), which deactivates in microwaves and can be destroyed given enough time.
It feels sad that I have to explain this after we all just read the same article. The Toxin is produced by a Bacteria which can form in cookware and storage containers even while stil very warm.
If the food is sealed and packaged while still in the safe temperaturesl range then it will not be contaminated. Refrigeration only slows microbe growth.
People should refridgerate food. They should also microwave leftovers.
For this one I only read the headline and context in comments so thanks for jumping in with some info. Bacteria producing spores is definitely something I’d never heard of, and sounds like an interesting wikipedia binge for later
I’m glad to see you check that your leftovers have B. Cereaus and not B Cytotoxicus before microwaving it. Only fools would forget that, right?
My stance is not and has never been about not refridgerating.
Your stance by trying to refute me is inadvertently that you should not microwave leftovers.
My stance is that the microwave isn’t a magical solution that will make any contaminated food edible.
I’m not sure what hoops you’re jumping to put those words in my post.
This made me really anxious about how long I tend to leave food out up until the moment I read that he left it out on the counter FOR FIVE DAYS
I once ate a slice of pizza that sat in a ziploc bag for three days inside a truck when the outside peak temp was near 110f.
I love me some day old room temp 'za, but even at 22, I knew that was risky.
Needed a day off, I guess.
I mean I’ve done that. But my reaction after I realise how long I’ve left it out is not going to be “sure, I’ll eat that.”
Our local food-info government body advises max 2 hours outside of the fridge, that should be enough for most foods to cool down for the fridge, right? No need to go days on end 🤣
I leave out my soup in room temp for days, while regularly boiling it every meal time to prevent it from spoiling. Am I screwed?
There are two vectors for food poisoning: Active harmful bacteria in your food, and toxins which are produced by harmful bacteria. When you boil it again, it removes the former threat but not the latter. Yes, this is very dangerous and you could die.
That’s bad but you’re not screwed. Just stop doing that. Get some Tupperware, put it in the fridge between uses.
Same lol. 5 days is absolutely insane.
I lived with a flatmate that used to pull this sort of shit.
Typical process:
She would remove the frozen chicken from the fridge, put it on the outdoor table, then go to class. Would come home to a defrosted chicken, which she would take and chop in half on the kitchen floor. Then she would put one half back in the freezer, usually on top. Lovely going to get ice to find it’s covered in frozen defrosted chicken blood. She would then use the other half to cook up a soup in our one big pot we had. This pot would live on the back corner of the stove for a week. Or two. Each day she would take a ladle full and warm it up to eat. The big pot wasn’t kept warm or in the fridge.
I got to the point where as soon as we saw the mould growing out of the pot, we would biff the entire contents and water blast the pot outside. Much to her annoyance.
She would then just repeat again the next week.
Did she like, mop the floor first? Was it vinyl or tile?
No.
Vinyl.
what the fuck??? how did you not pull her aside and say “hey, not ok”??
Oh we did.
Regularly.
But as poor students, it was pick your battles. Her dick boyfriend used to drive them both home drunk as, then cook chicken nuggets at 3am setting off the smoke alarms on a Tuesday…
Man, fuck share houses!
The despair I felt reading that was awful. Also it was super gross; I had to pause halfway through.
Good times.
My MIL does this, to this day, regularly, and it baffles me how she doesn’t get food poisoning.
She most recently let a chicken carcass hang out at room temp for 36 hours before boiling it to make a soup, which, okay, boil it long and high enough you’re probably fine. But then after it was done the stove was turned off and it sat out for another 18 hours before being put in the fridge.
Also she doesn’t believe that hard boiled eggs need to be refrigerated, I’ve seen a batch sit for 7+ days.
She also thinks I’m wasteful if I toss something that’s moldy, she scrapes the mold off and eats it. But based on what I’ve read, there are unseen spores you’re just ingesting so screw that.
Why is she alive?
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Kitchen floor you say??
When’s the funeral?
Man she just really wanted to see if her body could take it. Imagine the confusion at the horrible shits she must’ve had regularly. Couldn’t have anything to do with those food practices.
Where was she from?
Cambodia
I wonder if that’s common practice, where I grew up in Australia it wasn’t uncommon to see meat hung up outside under a tree and people just cutting off the rotten bits
For meat, that’s actually OK. Many meat curing processes involve mold.
On the other hand, don’t eat moldy bread.
Maybe.
This was Dunedin, NZ, so it was cold enough during the day to not be the end of the world, but still…
Yeah In today’s day and age with what we know about bacteria and refrigeration i see no need for what any of these people were doing
That’s Wolverine level of self-healing if she didn’t get ill.
It was a bit of an anxiety ride for me as well, being a frequent rice and pasta consumer.
I’d think pasta and rice would be a little bland together.
If you haven’t had pasta fried rice, you have lived an easier life than I.
Please do tell me more about pasta fried rice!
A pasta? Am I to accept as gods own truth that a pasta was the one who took wok into hand and fried this rice?
Saffron rice+orzo
Good yeah, I passed out after dinner last night, woke up 4 hours later and scooped up the left over spaghetti from the pan and fridged it. Ate* it for breakfast.
Edit
The CDC says no more than two hours for perishable food, and one hour if ambient temp is 90°F or above.
For the 96% of the world that aren’t stuck in the 1700, that means 32°C
The CDC to which I was referencing happens to be part of the 4% stuck in the 1700s.
Save someone else having to look up the conversion: 1700 metric years is roughly 3092 years fahrenheit
I mean, if you aren’t stuck in the 1700s, you can just google what it converts to…
They did, and they shared it for people who aren’t stuck in the 1700s.
It’s also more efficient for one person to do it, rather than everyone having to do it
People don’t read articles 'cause they don’t want to spend a click, and you suggest opening a new tab and doing a web search?
Yeah, like, what is this? The 1700s?
Alternatively, we could put units in something the majority of internet users use and let the minority take that extra step…
The temp was on a website by the CDC, an American agency within the federal government…
Why would they use Celcius to convey information to their own citizens, who primarily use Fahrenheit, to appease the rest of the world? Do countries that primarily use Celcius have their government agencies post all of their temperature recommendations in Fahrenheit for the Americans around the world?
Americans can use both so we just… use what is easy. How hot will it be today? 97F. How hot do F1 brakes get? 1000+C, and tyres 100C. They reach over 200 mph. The race distance is around 300km.
Never fails to amaze me how so many people don’t understand basic food storage.
My clients, constantly: “What do you mean I can’t just throw this open bag in the fridge?”, “What do you mean, ‘foil isn’t airtight’?”, “I don’t know how long it’s been in there! What do you mean it expired a month ago?” and my absolute favorite, “You can’t throw my moldy food away! You owe me money for that!”
What are your clients?
Er, better question to ask is probably, what do you do for work? Lol
I’m a residential counselor. Basically what someone else described, I work with people out of the hospital to reintroduce them into the community. I teach life skills, coping skills, appropriate behavior, that sort of thing.
My clients are middle functioning adults, primarily male, right now 30s and up. Think a grown man, but with the comprehension skills of a middle schooler or lower.
Lot of patience, lot of repetition, lot of getting yelled at, hit occasionally. Fun times.
Thank you for doing what you do.
I think I see a lot of your clients hanging out in the comments sections of Facebook and Instagram!
Are you a fridge-contents-consultant or something?
Likely some kind of aide or in-home help. I have family that works in that field and a lot of it is just helping people with “normal” routine things we all do, but that they’re unable to for whatever reason.
Foil isn’t air tight?
How are you making foil air tight?
Crimping and folding it around the edge of the pan or the foil itself. Foil can hold in the steam of a pan in the oven or a foil pack on a campfire, for practical purposes that’s air tight. If you’re trying to contain superheated helium then it’s a different story.
Not air tight enough for extended storage purposes, too air tight for cooling in the fridge. It’s all relative as your examples demonstrate.
Hm. I now wonder if it depends. But I don’t wonder enough to do an experiment, lol
Yup. This exactly. After 2, and I feel like I shouldn’t even go that far lol, I toss out. Safe than sorry and all that.
You’d eat food that’s been sitting on the counter for 2 days? Maaaybe 2 hours.
You’ve never brushed the mold off a week old pizza after a heroin binge?
No, not once in my 21 years using heroin.
Yeah it’s normally just some diarrhea, maybe some vomiting, maybe some immunocompromised people will have more serious symptoms. 5 days is a long time, but so is killing a 20 year old in 10 hours.
It’s probably helpful to think of it as increasingly bad results from increasingly bad practices, and still seek to avoid the milder non-deadly results too.
5 days out of the fridge - even sealed - is straight insanity. Of course he got sick eventually, I’m just surprised it took so long 😱😱😱
Maybe he lived in Antarctica without central heat? 🤔
I’m surprised it wasn’t visibly mouldy at that point
The article says he stored it in Tupperware. Spaghetti in an airtight container, like rice and other carbs, take a lot longer to show signs of mold. So maybe not in the first week. But absolutely after a month!
And for anybody curious who wants to try the science: reminder that if you see visible mold, it’s already too late. The spores are deep in the food and what’s visible is just a fraction of the fungus!
Especially sealed, it would probably just have dried up otherwise and been crunchy but ok.
You beat me to it, yes absolutely.
Especially when sealed. It can’t dry and it’s like a petri dish for mold and bacteria.
Honestly 5 days out on the counter was asking for trouble - that long is tempting fate even when stored properly in the fridge
Yeah, cooked pasta? Two days tops, and I personally wouldn’t touch it after one. And why not refrigerate it? Did they not own one, because I can’t see any other logical explanation to not do this.
Two days on pasta? I give 5-7 in the fridge, and six months if I freeze it. Maybe a little less if its a dairy based sauce like alfredo
Ngl I stretch it out to like 2 weeks sometimes, throwing out only only if it starts starts smelling or the texture goes bad…
Should I not be doing this lol
Yeah, like I said, tops. I wouldn’t eat it personally, but I don’t think you’ll die.
From just the post I was going to say college student with a crappy mini fridge that couldn’t possibly hold a weeks worth of meals. The article had more info and said his parents found him after he didn’t get up for class though. So seems like he was still living at home. No reason to not refrigerate it and how did his parents not notice what he was doing? Seems like somebody around should have had more common sense than this.
Huh, i always thought that pasta and rice are some of the safer things to store a week in the fridge.
I mean there’s caution and there’s what is fine to do normally. I’ve noticed that especially online people heavily lean towards caution, some don’t even reheat rise because dangerous.
I think something like five days is fine and just be sensible about it, look, smell, if seems good, taste, if good, should be just fine.
Dumbasses who just leave pasta in room temperature for five days and then eat it are what scare people in being really cautious and the reason some stricter recommendations are made.
I just realised … The bacteria is … Seriously … Called B. Cereus?
I am serious, and don’t call me bacteria.
The specific name, cereus, meaning “waxy” in Latin, refers to the appearance of colonies grown on blood agar.
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Cuper Cereus.
I spent WAY too much time on this
Bacillus cereus
Yep.
Sounds like a Harry Potter spell
Does Bacillus Cereus look like a bitch?
Itty bitty rod shaped things. More like a bunch of really little dicks.
The name’s Cereus, Bacillus Cereus
Why so Cereus?
Before her death in 2023, actress Cindy Williams auditioned for the role of Harry Potter’s godfather in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Of course she was completely wrong for the part, but she was invited to the audition just so that the casting director could say to her, “Shirley you can’t be Sirius.”
But her name is Cindy.
But she’s most famous for her titular role on the hit 70s sitcom, “Laverne and Shirley.”
I believe the Latin pronunciation would be something like “Chayreous”
source: 🇮🇹
Why is this so important? It’s just some germs.
Bro, it’s literally called B. cereus
5 days ON THE COUNTER?! And it tasted off, and he consumed it anyway.
This is so stupid that it has to be intentional suicide.
I one time argued with literally hundreds of people on Reddit about basic food safety regarding food left out on the counter. I’m still floored by it. Numerous government agencies around the world agree about this, and yet…
Btw food safety was MORE critical before modern science because you could easily die from it back then. That was a common excuse people gave me in the previously mentioned subreddit, for eating food left out/bad - “our ancestors did it”. No.
Our ancestors took storage measures right away, salting meat, putting root vegetables in the root cellar…
Dude, I grew up with nonstop food poisoning because my mom did this. My family always said it was a “stomach flu” when the whole family was puking and shitting every other week.
It was horrible and I think it did some damage to my digestive system long term. I didn’t figure it out until I was in my 20’s and stopped eating anything she cooked.
I’m weird about left overs now, even though my husband is very clean when he cooks and doesn’t leave food out, or if he does it goes in the trash.
Don’t leave your food out people. It will fuck you up one day.
Wow, that sounds so frocking horrible… I grew up with a mom that involved me in the kitchen every chance she got, and I am really thankful for that, it taught me so much about food, cooking, baking. your story is basically the evil twin of mine! ‘Being weird’ about leftovers now seems like the minimal damage you could have taken, I would have a very hard time of trusting other folks’ food after growing up like that. Wow.
This is why I am highly circumspect about any food that people offer me. Cause you never know what their understanding of food safety is.
Food safety is so important! After taking the food manager safety test I hate eating at some peoples houses. It scares me. My step brothers use to leave meat to thaw on the countertop overnight. Miserable.
5 days without putting it into the fridge? That’s asking for trouble.
I feel comfortable about 2-4 hours without a fridge, but I’ve occasionally left rice out 12 hours a few times with no issues. Same with pasta.
4 hours max in the zone between 40 and 140F is the general guideline for risk. There are a lot of nuances to it like how pasteurization and sous vide cooking work but in general that’s a good rule of thumb
Also to note that’s only if you’re gonna continue to store it.
Food left out for more than four hours is safe to consume like pizza but if you’re not gonna finish it, trash it at that point you cannot store it anymore.
This is incorrect
4 hours is the safe to consume cutoff per other agencies (like the center for food safety in the uk) but they agree foods that spent more that 2 hours in 40-140F shouldn’t be refrigerated, even if still safe to eat
https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/trade_zone/safe_kitchen/Temperature_Danger_Zone.html
The usda is far more conservative. Same basic guidelines but food should be refrigerated within an hour and discarded after 2. Dunno if this is reflective of changes in quality in the food supply or just more concern for liability
Will you get food poisoning if you eat 6 hour old pizza? Frankly almost certainly not, but it depends on a number of factors like if and how it was handled, the holding temp during service, immunocompromised status, etc. real world studies on pizza specifically show fairly low bacterial growth on pizza that was prepared safely and not handled, but significantly more (although still pretty low) if the pizza was handled during serving (which is more realistic).
But I mean literally millions of people eat rare beef every day without issue so it’s about how much risk you’re willing to tolerate, ultimately
These recommendations pretty much always err on the side of caution to such a degree that a lot of people don’t really respect them. Saying you should throw away pizza after it has been in room temp for 2 hours, come on now, when there’s some actually serious recommendation peoole will think it’s similar sort of nonsense and not follow it.
Rare beef is a bit of an anomaly in that the meat is quite dense, and while the surface can grow bacteria, the interior spolis much slower (not to say its safe forever, but can be safe eat cooked Pennsylvania rare, for example).
True but some people have rare burgers and the ground beef ruins what you’ve said
We had a rule where if you left pizza out for 24 hours, it’s still good if you’re willing to have diarrhea butt.
After 48 hours, it’s still good if you’re willing to vomit.
In college, definitely had people who took those risks.
There is a persistent belief that cooked rice is exempt from the 4-hour rule. That belief is mostly wrong, because the water activity in cooked rice is still able to support a few hardy species of bacteria, including b. cereus (the bacteria that cause this illness), in some circumstances. It’s pretty rare, but possible, and therefore inevitable that it will eventually happen to people who fail to refrigerate rice.
Cooked stuff is borderline if it spends 5 days in the fridge. 5 days NOT in the fridge is insanity.
How hot is your fridge?
I know you CAN eat 5 day old stuff out of the fridge, but it’s at the point where I would be suspicious, depending on the item.
If there was nothing over five days old in my fridge, it would be empty.
I’m obviously talking about leftovers/prepared food.
Yeah, and I’ve made most of what’s in my fridge.
Ok well literally everything tells you not to do that. Do what you want, but general rule is 3-4 days for most meat things, and you should be careful at 5.
Same, it depends on the item and how I’m able to store it. BBQ i feel pretty comfortable keeping in the fridge for up to 5 days, but most things I try to keep down to 2 days. 3 at most. Certainly anything starchy like noodles or rice, potatoes and such, no more than 2.
Food needs to cool down to 4° (40f) within the 2-4hrs to be safe as a good rule.
Rice is a dish I serve the meal with, then take the extra that is hot and put into a shallow container to cool at room temp while eating dinner & then refrigerate.
