More than a decade ago, a young Belgian man died from ‘fried rice syndrome’ after eating old food.
Now, the man’s death has resurfaced across social media, launching a spate of food experts taking to TikTok to post warnings about eating leftovers.
The story behind the trend
In 2011, the Journal of Clinical Microbiology published an article called Sudden Death of a Young Adult Associated with Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning.
The case study described the death of a 20-year-old man who died after eating pasta contaminated with the bacteria Bacillus cereus.
In 2008, the man ate five-day-old leftover spaghetti that had been left in the kitchen at room temperature.
He was struck down with vomiting, headache, abdominal pain and nausea.
The next morning at 11am, his parents became worried because he was still in bed. When they went to his room, they found him dead.
Fried rice syndrome
Food poisoning caused by fried rice contaminated with Bacillus cereus is so common that around the world the term “fried rice syndrome” was coined to describe it.
However, dry foods including pasta and other rice dishes can also contain Bacillus cereus.
The bacteria can grow in the food producing toxins that cause food poisoning.
Bacillus cereus is also resistant to heat and not easily destroyed by cooking – which means that even if food is reheated people can still become infected.
Here come the food safety experts
The details surrounding the death of the young Belgian man began going viral on TikTok about a week ago.
One video about fried rice syndrome attracted more than 3.4 million views and over 8000 comments.
It also prompted people to share their own leftover horror stories.
Sports dietitian Kyndall Weir spoke of a client who was eating a couple of slices from a pizza every day that had been left out for a week.
She then went on the explain why this was dangerous and spoke about the “temperature danger zone”.
“If something is supposed to be refrigerated and it reaches above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, bacteria can start to grow,” Weir explained.
“On the other hand, something that is supposed to be hot, like that rice that was cooked, cools down below 140F. That is also in the temperature danger zone.”
This launched a series called “Food safety for first timers”.
One person asked if food could be reheated and then put back in the fridge hot.
“Technically you should let it cool before putting it back in the fridge,” Weir answered.
Former professional cook Jon Kung also had advice for home chefs based on restaurant food safety standards.
“One sure fire way to not be killed by your own food is to follow the 40-140-4 rule,” he said.
“Basically it means if you let your food sit for four hours between the temperatures of 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit you need to throw it out. That’s what restaurants are taught to do. That’s the baseline for safety.
“If I ate a grilled chicken breast that was fully cooked and had been sitting on my countertop for six hours would I immediately die? Probably not. Would I get sick? Maybe.”
What does this mean in Australian?
HealthDirect has pretty simple-to-follow guidelines on keeping and reheating food.
- Food should be cooled to 5C or colder as quickly as possible.
- Frozen food should be kept at -15C or colder and be defrosted in the fridge not at room temperature.
- The ‘temperature danger zone’ for food safety is between 5C and 60C, and bacteria can’t grow easily at temperatures outside of this zone.
- Food should be okay for up to four hours but aim to get leftovers in the fridge within two hours of cooking.
- Chill food quickly by dividing it into smaller portions in shallow containers.
- When reheating leftovers it should be done rapidly to 60C or hotter.