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<\/p>\nA MAN died after eating a bowl of reheated pasta in tomato sauce.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old, known as AJ, was found in bed by his devastated parents several hours later.<\/p>\n
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The student had prepared the spaghetti dish five days earlier and left it in the kitchen at room temperature.<\/p>\n
After a day at school, he warmed the meal in the microwave and wolfed it down before heading out to play sport.<\/p>\n
But after suffering with a headache, stomach pains and nausea, he returned home only 30 minutes later. <\/p>\n
The lad then vomited "profusely" and endured two episodes of "watery diarrhoea", according to a case report published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. <\/p>\n
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AJ, from Brussels, Belgium, fell asleep at around midnight. <\/p>\n
When his "worried" parents went to check on him at 11am the following day, he was dead. <\/p>\n
Legal examination determined he passed away at around 4am – about 10 hours after consuming the pasta in tomato sauce. <\/p>\n
An autopsy later revealed he had suspected food poisoning caused by the bacteria Bacillus cereus.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n He had moderate centrilobular liver necrosis, which likely caused his organs to shut down. <\/p>\n The report authors said: "The spaghetti had been kept at room temperature for several days.<\/p>\n "This allowed Bacillus cereus to grow to very high concentrations and produced the high toxin concentration (14.8 \u03bcg\/g) found in the pasta and which is likely responsible for the fatal outcome."<\/p>\n AJ's death, which happened in 2008, was first reported in 2011.<\/p>\n But his story resurfaced this week after several TikTok videos and Reddit posts warned of the dangers of "fried rice syndrome". <\/p>\n The term refers to a type of food poisoning caused by eating reheated foods which have not been stored correctly. <\/p>\n Uncooked foods, like rice, contain spores of Bacillus cereus which can survive when items are cooked.<\/p>\n If rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores can grow into bacteria, which will multiply and may produce toxins that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. <\/p>\n The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that the bacteria or toxins could make the rice unsafe to eat.<\/p>\n In rare cases, like AJ's, this can prove fatal.<\/p>\n Social media users were horrified that something so simple could potentially kill them. <\/p>\n One person said on Reddit: "I regularly eat pizza a day or two later after it\u2019s left on the side. I had no idea."<\/p>\n While another wrote: "Three days is my rule for leftovers. I\u2019m going to revisit that."<\/p>\n But others on TikTok assumed not scoffing leftovers which have been out of the fridge was common knowledge. <\/p>\n In a video by @jpall20, posted as a warning to "all the students and meal-preppers out there", one woman said: "I don't know how this isn\u2019t common sense."<\/p>\n Another user commented: "Do people not know that they need to refrigerate food?"<\/p>\n The NHS advises that people should aim to serve rice as soon as it has been cooked.<\/p>\n If that isn't possible, it should be cooled as quickly as possible – ideally within one hour – and kept in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.<\/p>\n When warming it up, it should be steaming hot all the way through, and it should never be reheated more than once, the health service adds. <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/sick-woman-laying-sofa-blowing-760921820-1.jpg\")
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