Any cooked food you save has an expiration date. Rice spoils in the fridge after how long? Not as long as expected.
How long does cooked rice last in the fridge? The National Health Service recommends reheating and eating cooked rice within one day.
Why is the shelf life less than other chilled foods? A microbe you may not know about causes "fried rice syndrome."
The environment is full of spore-forming Bacillus cereus, which can infect food, especially uncooked rice.
"B. cereus spores and some of their six toxins can survive cooking," says Stop Foodborne Illness program director Vanessa Coffman, PhD.
The FDA expects 63,400 B. cereus-related illnesses in the US annually.
Most B. cereus toxin victims report a slight stomachache that goes away in 24 hours.