We all love rice, besides ugali, rice is one of the staple foods in the country. Its cooking recipe is easier to master for almost every Kenyans making it a common food for everybody.
Most people can store cooked rice for hours, days and even for weeks, then just reheat it when there is a need. But do you understand the dangers you are exposing yourself and your loved ones to?
Experts warn that reheating rice renders it poisonous. However, it is not reheating which makes the rice dangerous for your health, but the way you stored it before reheating.
Before you cook your rice, it usually contains bacteria, spores of Bacillus cereus, which is known for food poisoning. You might be wondering how this spores will survive after cooking the rice?
Fiona Hunter, a British registered nutritionist says cooking rice does not kill the spores, they will survive and when the rice is left to cool at a room temperature, the spores grow into a bacteria, which will multiply rapidly to a toxic substance that causes vomiting and diarrhea.
"Uncooked rice contains spores of bacteria called Bacillus cereus which can survive when rice is being cooked and cause food poisoning.
"If rice is left standing at room temperature after being cooked, the can grow int bacteria which will multiply," she said, adding that rice should be kept at a room temperature for a maximum of one hour then keep it inside the refrigerator.
Rice should be only reheated once after proper storage.
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