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Comment by terribleperson | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, I am way more concerned about food being left out than sell-by/best by dates. The harm that can result from leaving food out is well-established. Sell-by dates? We're basically taking the manufacturer's word for it, as if they're somehow impartial here.

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Yeah actually I’m with you on this. Not for everything, but there are definitely food items I won’t try to save after ex. putting them out for a party (like if a dairy based dip has been at room temp for more than 1-2 hours it’s not going back in my fridge).

Rice is one I pay close attention to. When I get takeout from my favorite Taiwanese restaurant, I usually throw away the rice they give me and cook my own (it's a bit of a drive back to my place).

Of course I then keep it warm in my rice maker for 24 hours, but supposedly that's safe in this Zojirushi.

Please ask them not to add rice if you plan to throw it away. Thanks :)

Yeah, I will. I actually had that thought when writing that post. If it helps, they provide rather small portions of rice.

that's unnecessarily wasteful

I agree. I will ask them to leave it off future to go orders.

What's the deal with rice? I come from a culture we eat a lot of rice. You can keep rice in the fridge for nearly a week. The only time I throw away rice is if it has visible fungus on it.

The problem is with cooked rice that hasn't been cooled off properly (or not kept hot enough). The heat-resistant spores of the Bacillus Cereus will then develop and the bacteria will proliferate and produce a heat-resistant toxin, which can hurt you even after reheating the leftover rice.

You need to keep your rice cold (<7 °C) or hot (>63 °C) enough for the spores not to develop. Letting your rice cool off naturally in a pot is also leaving it at the wrong temperatures for a longer time than if you rapidly cool it off.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7913059/

I never ever heard of rice poisoning and it is the most common takeaway dish.

Me neither until very recently, when a student died from it. Then it was all over the news for a week. (I'm pretty sure that is in the level of being struck by lightning.) It has even a name: fried rice syndrome.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/fried-rice-syndrome

Do you not like the texture or something?

Throwing away room temperature rice after an hour or two has nothing to do with safety.

Honestly, it's not the best rice, especially after sitting in a styrofoam box for the drive home.

Why? A Taiwanese restaurant is going to go through a lot of rice, so it seems unlikely they'll serve you anything that's been sitting around for ages, plus it's usually very obvious from the texture if it has been sitting around.

It's not the best rice, the portion is too small, and by the time I get home it's been sitting in a styrofoam box for a while. I should just ask them to leave it off.

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