You may wonder how long cooked rice is good for. The answer ranges from three to four days for leftover rice you’ve cooked at home or four to six days for cooked rice you’ve purchased.12
Reheating rice and leaving it out for periods of time can also affect how long cooked rice lasts. Here’s more about how long you can safely store rice, why people can get sick from eating leftover rice, and the tips you need to know to avoid illness.
Does Cooked Rice Go Bad?
Cooked rice can still go bad, as its freshness is limited to a maximum of six days. Rice, like many other foods, may spoil or become unsafe to eat when not prepared or stored under the right conditions.3
How Can You Tell if Rice Is Spoiled?
Spoiled rice will have specific appearance, odor, and taste qualities. In general, signs of spoiled food can include:34
- Changes in color, especially compared to when it was first prepared
- Changes in texture—like increased mushiness and sliminess
- Undesirable taste
- Unpleasant odor
Do You Know How Long a Fridge Can Hold Food Without Power?
Why Rice Can Make You Sick
Rice harbors certain bacteria that may make a person fall ill if not stored and reheated properly. Cooked rice, in particular, has been associated with Bacillus cereus. The bacteria is found in the soil and produces a toxin that causes gastrointestinal illnesses when ingested. It also commonly causes food-related illnesses.5
When rice is cooked and unrefrigerated without being processed again, B. cereus can increase. The bacteria may also produce toxins that can make you sick because heat can’t destroy them.5
Rice and Food Poisoning
The sickness you can get from eating spoiled rice is called food poisoning. Food poisoning is an illness that occurs after a person eats food or drinks water that has been contaminated with certain potentially harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, or toxins. It’s also quite common—each year, about 48 million people in the United States have food poisoning.6
As the body rids itself of the foreign item, infected people can experience vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps.7 Most cases of food poisoning resolve on their own within a week.8
Exposure to these harmful items can be particularly risky for people who are immunocompromised, pregnant, or under the age of five.9 Their bodies may not be equipped to combat these unwelcome organisms appropriately. In more extreme cases, food poisoning can even cause death—it has been linked to about 3,000 deaths in the United States each year.8
How To Cook Rice
There are different ways to prepare rice in its various forms, ranging from white or brown rice to jasmine or basmati rice. You can steam or boil it, for example, with or without a rice cooker.10
The cooking time will also vary depending on the type of rice and how you cook it. You may need to let it cook for 15 to 45 minutes.11
Tips for Storing Cooked Rice
Eating cooked and properly heated rice carries very little risk. However, if the rice remains in a temperature range of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit after two hours, it carries more risk. This temperature and time combination can result in increased bacterial growth.12
Cooked rice should also not be left out for more than one hour if the temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it’s no longer hot, it must be put in a closed container and refrigerated. After the leftover rice is cooled and stored in a refrigerator below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s good for up to four days in the fridge or three to four months in the freezer.1
Once people are ready to enjoy their leftover rice, Melissa Azzaro, RDN, LD, registered dietitian and podcast host at Hormonally Yours, told Health that rice can be reheated only once. Azzaro recommended portioning a serving to reheat instead of heating the leftover batch to avoid the reheating-storing-reheating pattern. To help ensure safety, all leftovers need to be reheated to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.1
Have You Tried These Healthy Ways To Cook?
A Quick Review
When considering the safety of eating leftover rice, the risk is linked only to improper storage practices. Enjoying rice and eating it for leftovers the next day is a healthy and safe option as long as it’s being stored and reheated correctly. Cooked rice should not be left out for more than one hour if the temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Signs of spoiled rice include a strange look or smell, changes in texture, or an undesirable taste. Eating spoiled rice may lead to food poisoning.
