We always remember that what we eat can become a vehicle for pathogenic bacteria for the body and in this sense, we must know that some cooked foods also represent a risk. Therefore, we reveal why your leftover pasta or rice shouldn’t be left out of the fridge for even an hour.
Why Quickly Refrigerate Leftovers
Although we always think that eating raw food is more risky, we must know that more dangerous than Salmonella wave Escherichia coli is the picture that causes a bacterium called bacillus cereus that develops in already cooked food left at room temperature.
This bacterium can grow between 5 and 55°C and can reproduce to double in less than 30 minutes at 30°C.
Its ingestion through contaminated food can cause two types of food poisoning: a diarrheal form that is usually caused by contaminated meats and sausages, which is the least serious form and can be avoided by heating it to more than 40°C, and another emetic-type intoxication that causes nausea and vomiting and occurs in a short time. time after the consumption of contaminated cereals (approximately between 1 and 5 hours later).
This is what happened in the notorious case of the Belgian student who He died after eating pasta that he had cooked five days before.and reheated before consumption but kept out of the refrigerator until then.
The key to prevention is refrigerating leftovers as soon as possible and not storing them at room temperature
This emetic form of food poisoning cannot be prevented by heatingbecause the bacterium causes spores or toxins that are thermostable and resist up to 10 minutes at 100°C or more, which is why, even having heated the paste sufficiently, the young student whose case is now widely known cannot avoid the disease that it was lethal.
The key then to prevent this foodborne illness is refrigerate leftovers as quickly as possibleespecially those of cereals such as pasta or rice, which is where the spore or toxin develops most frequently. bacillus cereus.
This article was originally published by Gabriela Gottau in February 2019 and has been reviewed for republication.
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