Leftovers aren't the worst thing that can come out of the kitchen. They can make for an easy
meal. But certain foods can become toxic when reheated. Keep watching to learn the risks.
Eating leftover rice can be dangerous. Bacillus cereus, bacteria that causes food poisoning,
is the main source of concern. According to the National Health Service, spores
of bacillus cereus can be present from the very beginning on rice,
even on uncooked grains. Those spores can also remain on cooked rice.
If cooked rice is left to sit out too long at room temperature,
those spores begin to grow bacteria. This is when the real risk for food poisoning begins.
According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, symptoms of food poisoning caused
by bacillus cereus include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
To avoid getting sick from leftover rice, you can take a few steps. First,
let your cooked rice cool quickly, ideally within 1 hour of cooking. This limits the
time the rice is within "the danger zone," between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit,
as described by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
You can store cool rice in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. During storage, your leftover rice
may become hard and dry, slimy, or stinky, and these are signs your cooked rice has gone bad.
While reheating, make sure your rice reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
You must follow these food safety steps from start to finish because, as the University of
Florida explains, but you should also keep in mind that proper reheating
isn't always enough to kill Bacillus cereus.
Reheating chicken has its risks. Most people are familiar with the bacteria present in raw chicken,
such as salmonella. However, these bacteria can remain on chicken if the meat is cooked
or reheated incorrectly. As the San Francisco Gate explains, you can get food poisoning caused
by salmonella if your chicken doesn't reach the correct temperature when it's reheated.
Reheated chicken can expose you to foodborne illnesses with serious consequences.
Salmonella can cause death, but rarely. People most likely to suffer death or other severe
salmonella symptoms are those in vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children,
pregnant people, and individuals with compromised immune systems.
More common, less serious Salmonella symptoms include stomach pain,
headaches, chills, fever, diarrhea, or nausea.
Luckily, you can avoid these side effects by taking precautions when reheating your chicken.
After cooking the chicken to the proper temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit,
you should put it away within 1 hour, as with cooked rice.
Once stored in the refrigerator, the cooked chicken will last 3 to 4 days.
When it's time to reheat, you need to bring the entire chicken's temperature back up to 165
degrees Fahrenheit. Some, like Healthline, think the safest bet is reheating your leftovers the
same way they were first cooked. Using a meat thermometer can eliminate the guessing game.
"Enough now, please!!"
"Actually, it's very nice. It's delicious."
Just like rice, potatoes are a starchy food that you should be careful reheating.
Both rice and potatoes are carbohydrate-rich foods that contain the bacteria bacillus cereus,
which causes food poisoning. If not properly stored or warmed to the correct temperature,
the bacteria can grow on leftover potatoes, making them toxic to eat.
Potatoes have even been linked to cases of botulism,
which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as "a rare but
serious illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body's nerves."
The Food Poisoning Bulletin explains that the greatest risk for potato-based-botulism
comes from baked potatoes stored in the fridge in aluminum foil:
"[The foil] can create a low oxygen environment where the
pathogen can grow and produce the toxin."
The best way to avoid these potato-borne illnesses is through safe storage. After cooking your
potatoes, remove all aluminum foil. Store the potatoes in shallow, air-tight containers or
plastic bags for 3 to 5 days. For safety, eat them as soon as possible. When reheating them,
err on the side of caution to make sure they are piping hot and cooked through.
Leftover mushrooms are another food you want to handle cautiously. Like potatoes,
there are concerns about botulism associated with mushrooms, because mushrooms are low-acid.
If you combine cooked mushrooms with low oxygen environments (through improper storage),
the risk for botulism is even higher. E. Coli, salmonella, and other bacteria that
can cause food poisoning or even death can also be spread through cooked, leftover mushrooms.
To avoid regrettable errors in cooking, storage, and reheating mushrooms,
you should cool the mushrooms ASAP after their first cooking before putting them in the fridge.
You should also set your refrigerator's temperature between 36-38 degrees Fahrenheit.
This ensures your fridge foods stay out of the USDA's aforementioned "danger zone,"
which begins at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The mushrooms should last 3 to 5 days,
and when reheating, be sure the mushrooms reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit before you begin eating.
Leftover seafood is another thing that can become toxic to reheat and eat. According
to the American Academy of Family Physicians, there are two ways to get poisoning from fish:
scombroid poisoning and ciguatera poisoning.
Johns Hopkins Medicine says that scombroid poisoning, or histamine poisoning,
occurs after eating fish that have "high levels of histamine due to improper food handling."
As for ciguatera poisoning, there are over 400 species of fish that naturally contain the toxin,
which creates this illness. You can't stop ciguatera poisoning through proper food safety,
but other forms of seafood-based food poisoning can be prevented.
"I'm dying."
"I was dying earlier today… and then I died. Now, I'm dead."
The FDA says that means buying seafood that was immediately caught and then frozen.
You can also purchase "previously frozen" fish, but make sure it doesn't smell pungent
or appear discolored. Frozen seafood may also be thawed in the refrigerator soon before cooking.
Once you have cooked seafood ready to store for leftovers,
you want to follow many of the aforementioned food safety tips to avoid getting sick.
Store the cooked fish in a refrigerator set below 40 degrees Fahrenheit within 2 hours of cooking,
and eat it within 4 days. When reheating, make sure that the leftover fish is cooked entirely
through, testing the seafood to make sure every inch of it has reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the food safety world, there's concern surrounding the reheating of nitrate-rich
vegetables. Unlike the food poisoning caused by leftover chicken, rice, or seafood,
the way that nitrate-rich vegetables become toxic is a little different.
The reheating itself is the part that is thought to be dangerous.
Concern surrounding nitrites and nitrates comes from both compounds'
links to diseases like cancer. However, it's not easy for them to become toxic.
There's good news: You don't need to worry too much about exposing yourself to harmful
nitrates through vegetables. The real concern comes from synthetic nitrites or nitrates,
like "sodium-potassium nitrate or nitrite," which
are usually found in processed foods such as hot dogs or bacon.
When these compounds enter the body, they are converted into nitrosamines,
which the Environmental Working Group says are where the real health risks
come from. You don't need to be too afraid of consuming vegetables high in nitrate,
as they contain other vitamins that prevent them from becoming harmful nitrosamines.
Foods high in natural sources of nitrate include vegetables like spinach,
bok choy, lettuce, and carrots. If you reheat any of these nitrate-rich
vegetables and they become dried up or shriveled, you would be concentrating
the amount of potentially harmful nitrates in your meal and exposing yourself to them.
To avoid making your food toxic, don't overcook your leftover vegetables into a shriveled-up mess.
If that's a concern, there are other, better uses for them.
Reheating processed meat contains the risk of exposing yourself to
synthetic nitrates. These nitrates,
although used to preserve the shelf life and color of processed meats, can be harmful to your health.
The other health concern is cholesterol oxidation products. Some research shows
that heating animal products results in the formation of cholesterol oxidation products,
which have been linked to disease.
Some think the effects are even worse when processed meat is heated in the microwave,
which has been shown to produce more of these
cholesterol oxidation products than other forms of heating.
To make matters worse, diseases like coronary artery disease are associated
with ingesting cholesterol oxidation products, according to the Indian
Journal of Clinical Biochemistry. Imagine reheating those processed meats a second
time — and possibly exposing yourself to even more of these potentially dangerous substances.
The toxic impact of reheating spicy peppers is much more immediate, compared to these
other foods. If you reheat hot peppers in the microwave, a few terrible things can occur.
Worst case scenario, you end up like the New York state individual who attempted to microwave a
spicy pepper and caused an explosion that released the pepper's spice into the air. ABC 13 reported
that this particular microwaved pepper made it hard for building residents to breathe,
even creating a "pepper spray" effect. The building ultimately had to be evacuated.
This situation likely occurred because hot peppers contain capsaicin, which is what makes them hot.
The amount of capsaicin per kind of pepper is even used to determine just how hot each pepper is. The
presence of this compound means heating them makes it an airborne toxin, creating the same,
or worse, symptoms of biting into a spicy pepper — and possibly, of pepper spray.
"Hey guys, guess who's back?"
"No need to thank me."
Sometimes, worse things can happen. When you put a hot pepper in the microwave,
it can explode or even catch fire.
Skip the microwave, if you must take the risk of reheating your spicy pepper at home.
You may have tried to reheat a few different pork products in your day.
First, there's foods like bacon and ham, which are forms of processed pork.
As we talked about, risks come with reheating processed meat,
such as the possible exposure to harmful synthetic nitrates or cholesterol oxidation products.
On the other hand, there are forms of unprocessed pork — such as pork chops,
pork loin, or pork ribs — which may also become toxic as leftovers.
Trichinosis is one of the most common forms of food poisoning associated with pork. The
Cleveland Clinic says that this foodborne illness comes when someone consumes raw or
undercooked pork which has been contaminated with the larvae of a worm called trichinella spiralis.
Once the parasite enters your body, it creates uncomfortable side effects such as diarrhea,
constipation, abdominal pain, headaches, chills, and more.
"I'm going to go lie down in my bed,
I feel so awful." "Yea, I'll carry you!"
"No, no! You're not going to… you dropped me twice last time."
This nightmarish form of food poisoning should be avoided at all costs. If you don't reheat
pork to the proper temperature, you might be at risk of contracting trichinosis.
Additionally, you may be susceptible to other foodborne illnesses, like salmonella and listeria,
if your leftover pork is heated incorrectly. Food Safety News says you should always reheat
your pork to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid food poisoning.
In addition, follow other common food safety practices in cooling,
storage, and following use-by dates, because food waste is a massive problem.
"And that's not good. When you're throwing away that much food,
you're not just being wasteful, you're wining and dining raccoons."
Learning about all the risks associated with reheating cooking oil might change the way you
treat a lot of your leftovers. You might start to think twice about reheating that leftover Chinese
food or pizza slices. Per NDTV, reheating oil could potentially make the oil more carcinogenic,
increase the amount of cholesterol, or make it more acidic. They add that there's an increase
in the chances of additional side effects like weight gain, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
As reported in The Times of India, there are even more health risks associated with reheated oil.
Reheating can increase the amount of compounds which are associated with
diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, as well as other illnesses. Also,
reheated oil can raise the number of free radicals, which can negatively impact your health.
Tossing your oil-covered leftovers is the easiest solution to this problem.
It can be hard to make sure your food is heated to a safe 165 degrees Fahrenheit,
all while making sure that the oil is not overheated. Bottom line? Be careful with oil.
This is probably more common sense than scientific knowledge,
but you shouldn't reheat leftover buffet food. As with other leftovers,
that's because the original food was possibly not kept fresh enough, to begin with. According to the
Minnesota Department of Health, potentially toxic causes of foodborne illnesses like norovirus,
salmonella, and E. coli can be spread through buffets. Buffet food becomes toxic when it is
not reheated to an adequate temperature, or kept hot enough while it's being stored in trays.
The FDA outlines several rules which buffets must follow to ensure food safety.
It explains that hot food must be heated to 165 degrees Fahrenheit before serving
and then stored in containers heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cold food must remain under 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
If food is left at room temperature, it must be thrown away after 2 hours.
If it's hotter than 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the time before disposal is reduced to 1 hour.
With so many guidelines in place, one can't be sure that the buffet you're at
is following all the rules. As a result, when you take your buffet leftovers home,
you may be saving food harboring bacteria. Sure, you may be able to kill some of the
bacteria through reheating. However, if the bacteria-covered food was out long enough,
it won't go away easily and even boiling temperatures might not kill bacteria completely.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about food safety
are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.