Understanding Fried Rice Syndrome And How To Avoid It

You may be wondering what fried rice syndrome is, I’ll tell you.It is a type of food poisoning that went viral online after a death that occurred fifteen years ago due to the illness resurfaced.

The death was first reported in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology as a case report. The report described a 20 year old Belgian student who died in 2008 after eating leftover spaghetti with tomato sauce, that he had prepared five days prior and left open on the counter instead of storing it in the refrigerator.

After reheating and eating the five day old meal, he began to vomit severely and developed gastrointestinal symptoms. The next morning he was found dead. His autopsy revealed that he suffered acute liver failure and large amounts of a bacteria called bacillus aereus was found in the pasta.

Eating food that’s been left out for days doesn’t sound delicious to a lot of people but fried rice syndrome is not uncommon.

Fried rice syndrome refers to food poisoning caused by bacillus aereus,this bacteria forms spores that release harmful toxins. A bacillus aereus infection can develop after eating food that was at room temperature for shorter periods of time, even hours.

So it doesn’t need five days to develop and kill you, sometimes all it takes is hours. Don’t eat food that’s been left out at room temperature or this delicious sounding illness could kill you too.