Even if something tastes good the day you ate it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good the next day or even good for you the next day. The truth is, some of your leftovers could be making you sick.
Potatoes
Reheating leftover potatoes could make you ill.
As the Independent reported, the issue with reheating potatoes isn’t actually the process of warming them in the microwave or oven. If cooked potatoes are left to cool at room temperature for too long, the bacteria that causes botulism may form. This is actually made more likely if the potatoes are wrapped tightly in foil.
Reheating doesn’t always get the potato hot enough to kill the bacteria, even if the dish seems piping hot.
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Scrambled Eggs/Casserole
If your plate of scrambled eggs is cold by the time you butter your toast, it’s fine to pop it in the microwave for a minute or two. However, the Food and Drug Administration advised that reheating eggs that have been sitting around for even a short while can be dangerous.
According to the FDA, you should never leave eggs or dishes containing eggs out of the refrigerator for more than two hours or more than one hour in hot weather. This means that it’s definitely not okay to reheat a casserole that was left out for serving at a party or a slice of quiche brought home from a restaurant. Bacteria such as salmonella can multiply rapidly in egg dishes and lead to serious food poisoning.
Have you ever brought home leftovers from a Chinese restaurant to enjoy the next day?
If you included rice in your take-home container, you may want to reconsider.
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Rice
Reheated rice could be a quick path to getting you a nasty case of food poisoning.
Why You Shouldn’t Reheat Rice
No one likes to waste food, which is why so many people bring home their leftover rice to eat the following day. Few think of rice as being a food likely to cause food-borne illness, but it is, especially if it’s improperly handled.
Raw rice may contain spores of bacteria called Bacillus cereus. These spores form to protect the bacteria from heat and other outside influences, and they aren’t easily destroyed – even by cooking. Even though Bacillus cereus spores aren’t readily eliminated by cooking, eating rice is unlikely to cause food poisoning if the rice is kept hot before serving – and not allowed to set around on a counter at room temperature. If this happens, the spores can germinate into active bacteria. For this reason, rice should always be served immediately after it’s prepared.
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Does Reheating Rice to a High Temperature Kill the Bacteria?
Bacillus cereus spores aren’t easily destroyed by heat, so even if you reheat rice to a high temperature, you won’t necessarily kill them – and the heat can actually activate them so they’re able to cause food poisoning. The only way to avoid this problem is to
