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Safe cooling of cooked rice

Cooked rice is a common cause of foodborne illness. If you are preparing rice for family and friends you should be aware that leaving rice to cool slowly at room temperature creates the ideal environment for toxin producing bacteria such as Bacillus Cereus to develop. Bacillius cereus produces a toxin which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

What is the issue?

Very few people realise that cooked rice can be responsible for their illness. Rice forms the basis of many ethnic foods and foods containing rice are frequently implicated in food poisoning episodes. It is common for food producers to prepare large quantities of rice a day ahead of use and leave it to cool slowly at room temperature, before heating and serving the next day. Such practices lend themselves to time/temperature abuse due to a slow rate of cooling. Temperature abusea allows pathogenic bacteria to grow, some of which produce toxins. This also applies to consumers preparing rice in the home.

If you consume cooked rice that is contaminated with Bacillus cereus toxin you are likely to experience symptoms of nausea and vomiting within 1 to 6 hours, occasionally followed by diarrhoea within 10-12 hours. The illness is short lived with recovery within 12-24 hours.

What can go wrong?

Uncooked rice frequently contains bacteria called Bacillus cereus. These bacteria can form protective spores that survive the cooking process. If cooled slowly, these spores can germinate, grow and produce an emetic (vomit inducing) toxin. Reheating rice before serving will not inactivate the emetic toxin or kill all the bacterial cells, so the rice may not be safe.

How can I tell if product is contaminated?

There is no way of telling that cooked rice is contaminated. Cooked rice that contains toxin produced by Bacillus cereus will not look, taste or smell off or any different to normal rice..

What can I do to protect the consumer?

To ensure that cooked rice is safe for eating, a number of steps can be taken to reduce the risk of illness.

• If rice is to be cooked in advance, do not cook too much at one time as large amounts take too long to cool.

• Either, keep cooked rice hot (>60ºC) or cool rice as quickly as possible. Rice will cool more quickly if removed from hot container and divided in clean shallow containers (<10cm deep). Alternatively, cool in a colander under cold running water.

• Cover cooked rice and store in a refrigerator (<4ºC)

• Use a stock rotation system to ensure that the oldest rice is used first (“first in, first out” rule).