20-Year-Old Dies From 'Fried Rice Syndrome' After Eating Leftover Pasta

www.iheart.com

20-Year-Old Dies From 'Fried Rice Syndrome' After Eating Leftover Pasta | iHeart

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.

249 comments

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
- 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.
  
  what the fuck??? how did you not pull her aside and say "hey, not ok"??
  
  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.
  
  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?
  
  That's Wolverine level of self-healing if she didn't get ill.
  
  Did she like, mop the floor first? Was it vinyl or tile?
- 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.
  
  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
- 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!"
  
  Are you a fridge-contents-consultant or something?
  
  Foil isn't air tight?
  
  What are your clients?
  Er, better question to ask is probably, what do you do for work? 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
  
  That's bad but you're not screwed. Just stop doing that. Get some Tupperware, put it in the fridge between uses.
  
  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.
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 😱😱😱
- 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.
- Maybe he lived in Antarctica without central heat? 🤔
- 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
- 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.
- I spent WAY too much time on this
- Bacillus cereus
  Yep.
  
  Sounds like a Harry Potter spell
- 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."
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  Our ancestors took storage measures right away, salting meat, putting root vegetables in the root cellar...
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
  
  Only way I think he survives is that his entire house is below 40 F (4.4 C)
  
  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.
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.
  
  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?
- 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.
5 days without putting it in the fridge? Hell at 5 days I'd even freeze it.
- I was doing something similar and even in the fridge at day 5 I could taste that it was borderline ok. At 5 days on the counter it must have tasted so fermented it was bubbling.
  Pasta and kimchi all in one.
  
  "That's flavor patina."
  
  I wonder if it was like closed with a lid and wet or if it was kinda open an dry. Either way, after 5 days I would not eat either one. Fucking yuck!
It’s almost like the scientists who named this bacteria knew this would happen.
You can’t… B. Cereus
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.
Five day old spaghetti sitting on a warm counter? Eww.
I thought he made a pasta dish, and the kept eating that. What the hell, making the spaghetti is the easiest bit and barely take a longer than microwaving some disgusting old pasta.
RIP this guy but I feel like we didn't necessarily lose one of our sharpest minds.
- I found out about this case through the chubbyemu video. Not sure how much of this was embellishment, but the way it's explained in the video is that the pasta was left out for a couple days, then thrown into the refrigerator by a roommate who didn't know it was probably bad. The guy then took out a portion of the pasta, completely unaware that it had gone rancid. Definitely a more believable mistake (although still pretty irresponsible of the meal prepper).
  
  That does sound way more reasonable.
  
  That's why we don't touch roommates food...they might kill you over it or you might poison them
  Couple weeks ago someone ate a can of Chilli out of my cupboard but last night someone put in a pack of Ritz crackers which were delicious btw
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
Terrible headline. The bacteria that killed him is associated with ‘Fried Rice Syndrome’ but FRS is named for leftovers stored in the fridge, not uneaten food left on the counter.
- I agree. It rubbed me the wrong way and even felt a bit racist.
  
  It isn't.
- also like.. i think literal billions of people eat fried rice that's been sitting in the fridge for a day or two, and yet "fried rice syndrome" remains basically an urban legend.
This thread is interesting. Everywhere ranging from "I eat pizza from the counter after 3 days" to "yeah I would never eat anything left out on the counter for over 2 hours".
And someone said everything in their fridge is food they cooked over 5 days ago.... Why??
- And someone said everything in their fridge is food they cooked over 5 days ago…
  I've been doing this for years and years. Maybe not wayyy more than 5 days but it is usually about a week. I don't have all that much time after work so I don't want to waste time cooking and I'm not wasting money on take out so I do all my cooking for the week on Saturday or Sunday. I don't do what the poor kid in the article did though, if anything I put things in the fridge that are still way too hot but I never wanted to risk something like that.
  
  Cook it, seal it, put it in the fridge. 5 days is fine.
  
  if anything I put things in the fridge that are still way too hot but I never wanted to risk something like that.
  It's better for food hygiene to go from hot to cold as fast as possible, it reduces the time it spends at the optimal temperatures for bacteria to grow. That's what we do for example when we sterilize milk, tomato, etc.
  If your fridge can handle it, it's not a problem AFAIK
- The thing with food safety is that the rate of occurrence may be low in some cases, but the consequences can be extremely high or fatal. And eating is an activity that is repeated often. So following safe practices is extremely important.
- If you meal prep and know what you're doing, 5 days is not outrageous.
  
  Yes, but that's where the freezer comes in. We really should not be eating too many food items after being cooked then hanging in the fridge over 5 days. I consider myself a lot less concerned about this kind of thing than most people but I would tap out usually after 5-6 days. Seems risky and definitely not a habit I wanna get into.
Shoot I'll leave rice on the counter all day sometimes... I should stop doing that.
- I had a Vietnamese roommate who used his rice cooker so that he made a bunch if rice and always when he wanted more he just clicked the cooker on to reheat it. And it took him sometimes like five days to eat it.
  Five days of rice sitting in room temperature and occasionally being heated. Mental. That's not food prep that's a science experiment.
  Dude was also often opinion that meat only gets better when it starts to smell a little in the fridge and you'll just pour a lot of soy sauce on it and down it goes with the forever rice.
  Apart from being a biowaste eating lunatic he was a good roommate.
- Chubbyemu on YouTube. Watching his videos will change your approach to food safety as well as a lot of the ordinary things we often do or think about doing that are, in fact, extremely dangerous.
  
  Lol I'm interested now, but the name made me think the channel was about a self-deprecating overweight fan of emulators...or large flightless birds, now that I think about it.
- I leave mine in the rice cooker but no more than a day. It's starts to get slimy after that and clearly inedible.
Again?!
Edit: oops no. Same guy. I think about this all the time. Like...who raised him to leave pasta on the counter and then eat it?! The sheer ignorance baffles me.
- Article says, college student... if you are suprised... i hate to break it to ya. They are all that dumb in one way or another. I know i was at least. And i know im not outside of the status quo in that regard.
  Hindsight and survivors bias. Also, super bad luck for that kid.
  
  Second year in college, one of the guys in the dorm would buy whole pizzas from the food court. And just leave them under his bed while he ate them over several DAYS ..
Im astounded at the speed that this can kill.
If I’m reading the article correctly, it was <24 hrs? God damn.
- Toxins generated by bacteria and some fungi are EXTREMELY poisonous. The unfortunate victim essentially ate a poisonous mushroom in the form of pasta.
  I am shocked to see how many people leave food on the counter to eat later. Refrigerate it immediately! Not one hour, not twenty minutes! As soon as you’re done eating, to the fridge it goes!
  Nothing ever happens to you until it happens, and we’re not talking about stomach pain, but almost instant death.
  
  Can't be putting hot food in the fridge, it heats the fridge up.
  
  You can't eat at everybody's house 🎶
- I breezed over the 10 hours part somehow.
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.
left to cool at room temperature for a few hours
I think I do that almost every single time I make food
- Guy that died let it sit out for multiple days per article... he was eating rotting food.
  
  Yes, I was just laughing about the clickbaity nature of the article.
- I typically just leave it out overnight... but I'm gonna stop doing that now lol
B. Cereus is no joke!
- This guy had that...he pasta way, though.
  
  That's actually a good one.
5 days??? Yikes. I feel uncomfortable if I leave food out for an hour just to let it cool down. I'll admit I've done some stupid stuff with leaving food out in my younger years (pizza left in the box on the counter for 2-3 days; one time while deployed to Iraq I stupidly thought the floor of our trailer would remain cool enough to keep an open can of chip dip fresh -- Newsflash: It did not), but 5 days??
- I've have food out frequently for like half a day / overnight but 5 days sounds absolutely insane to me. I don't even want to know how the noodles must've looked like, probably already smelled at that point too. Makes me queasy just thinking about eating that...
  
  Right!? On the one hand I feel like this guy was a dumb-dumb, but on the other hand, maybe he was never taught proper food safety, or maybe this was his first time living alone and cooking for himself and he just didn't know any better. Sad way to die either way.
- Honest question. What do you do with pizza if you still have leftovers on day 3+? I feel odd putting bread in the fridge.
  
  I can't remember the last time leftover pizza was still around in my house after 24 hours, but any pizza not eaten in goes into the fridge as soon as everyone is done eating.
  
  What do you do with pizza if you still have leftovers on day 3+?
  You use it as a Frisbee outside.
  
  pizza
  3 days old
  😲
  
  For pizza I feel gross if I don't put it in the fridge at least an hour after receiving it, then reheat in oven or eat cold. It's not just bread it's sauce and dairy and whatever meat or toppings are on it..
  
  I would freeze it
  
  Pizza never survived the morning of the second day for 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.
OK, so we can set the benchmark for danger at 5 days of room temperature.
Thanks random test subject. And RIP.
Missed opportunity for "the next day he woke up dead."
- Now how the hell does someone wake up dead?
  
  The rats vs mice thing is a weekly topic at our house
  
  Ask Dave Mustaine. He wrote a whole song about it.
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.
- .......................no it isn't.
be serious.
- 5 days is fucking absurd
  
  nobody ever accused bacteria of making sense
Hell yeah chubbyemu
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.
unsure if same student but story I knew of was he accidently left 1 container out, and the pther person he loved with saw it in the counter and not realising how long it had been out it in the fridge where it sat like a ticking time bomb till he ate that particular container.
Article seems to regurgitate that story with the details incorrect.