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.
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.
OK, so we can set the benchmark for danger at 5 days of room temperature.
Thanks random test subject. And RIP.
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.
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’m surprised there wasn’t any mold after 5 days of being kept unrefrigerated.
B. Cereus is no joke!
This guy had that…he pasta way, though.
That’s actually a good one.
I’m trying to sympathy for the victim but I just can’t.
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.
This what happens when parents serve terrible food to their kids. This kids palate never developed beyond McDonald’s fries and chicken tendies.
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.
5 day old, room temp pasta, is simply unforgivable
Dude eats like a raccoon
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.
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.
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.
…no it isn’t.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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
What about freezing, does he also think that does nothing?
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???
be serious.
5 days is fucking absurd
nobody ever accused bacteria of making sense
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.
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.
After five days of the food sitting out at room temperature, he heated some up and ate it.
Super clickbaity lol, we all know not to leave food on the counter for a week right? It wouldn’t surprise me if the pasta was getting fuzzy by that point.
Worst I’ve done is eat pizza I left out overnight. A week? Nah. Never.
It’s almost like the scientists who named this bacteria knew this would happen.
You can’t… B. Cereus
Hell yeah chubbyemu
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 …
This is what happens when parents forget to teach their kids anything because “that’s why we have schools”.
And kids grow up thinking “I already know everything, I went to school”
Jesus. Russian roulette, food edition.
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.
