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A teen ate leftover rice and noodles. Hours later, doctors amputated his legs and fingers

M

MULTIZ321

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That is a scary thing to happen. It makes it seem like you are not safe eating out.

My sister owned a restaurant for years that was near Wiggins, CO, and she told me that anything with starch is far more dangerous to leave at temperatures that cause the bacteria to grow in the starch. Potatoes, rice and noodles were some she mentioned. Her warning was about buffet restaurants like the one we used to go quite often, where the buffet items sit with barely any heat to keep them warm because they want to save energy for the quiet hours and won't dump the older items in the buffet. So maybe 2-5 PM the restaurants might have very few customers. A chinese restaurant she and I went to one afternoon was particularly obvious about not changing out the rice and noodles that she could tell, so she definitely wouldn't eat those items.
 
What a terrible outcome for a kid just living his life. No fingers, no legs, from leftovers.

I had no idea about this bacteria but am generally quick to get leftovers in fridge. Not a rice person, but appreciate your adding to this, Cindy. Not keen on buffets, but, just hadn’t really thought they could kill me if not properly attended.
 
Horrible thing to happen. I wonder if he ate it cold or re-heated it. We usually reheat chinese food leftovers in a wok. No one had ever gotten sick in my house, but we only keep it a day or so.

We try to be careful about waiting until it cools down until putting it away.
 
This is a scary article because I enjoyed eating re-heated leftovers rices and noodles. I enjoyed re-heating Chinese food especially shrimp Lo Mein.
 
I’d never heard of rice and pasta being an issue. Forget to put the potato or egg salad away, throw it out. Take the stuffing out of the turkey before putting the turkey carcass in the fridge. Find last night’s pasta still on the counter the next morning because it was too hot to put away right after dinner? Grab a fork and have a bite or two at room temp before popping it in the fridge for leftovers tonight. How did hundreds of millions of Chinese survive before refrigeration? I thought leftover rice was a breakfast staple.
 
PigsDad said:
Actually, you should not let leftovers cool down before refrigerating them. That allows more time for bacteria to grow.

www.aarp.org

Myth Buster: Should you let hot food cool before refrigerating? - AARP Bulletin

Myth Buster: You should let hot food cool before you put it in the refrigerator. Facts: Just the opposite.
www.aarp.org www.aarp.org

Kurt
Click to expand...

First time I have ever heard this. I would think hot food would lead to condensation and moisture which leads to bacteria/spoilage? Maybe I am wrong.
 
My ex-FIL would not eat hot pie from the oven. He thought it would kill him.
Pie had to be cold from the fridge... opposite of what we know to be healthy.
<weird>
.
 
joestein said:
First time I have ever heard this. I would think hot food would lead to condensation and moisture which leads to bacteria/spoilage? Maybe I am wrong.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a common misbelief.

Kurt
 
Talent312 said:
My ex-FIL would not eat hot pie from the oven. He thought it would kill him.
Pie had to be cold from the fridge... opposite of what we know to be healthy.
<weird>
Click to expand...
Well, call me weird, because I actually prefer my pie to be cold. Doesn't mean that it is unhealthy if it is properly refrigerated, though.

Kurt
 
Wow - what a horrible thing for this young man. We don't have Chinese food often and when we do, we don't have much of the rice. I do and love when I have leftovers. Great next day for lunch. Never had an issue. Never heard of this bacteria associated with rice.

Yes, for many years we waited for our leftovers to cool before refrigerating. I did read a few years ago, no need to wait for the food to cool off and better when hot/less bacteria. I still wait a few minutes. Cool it down a bit but definitely not as long as way back then.

Did not know that starchy foods spoiled that quick.

Love pies cold too :) -

Thank you for sharing Richard.
 
You know, the article never stated how old the leftovers were. I'm guessing they were much older than any of us usually keep (weeks? article doesn't state), since both the young man and his roommate got sick from the food. It is just unfortunate that the one young man had an abnormally bad reaction from the food.

Kurt
 
If it's got some sort of moldy, fuzzy, dark growth on it,
it's prolly too old to eat.
.
 
PigsDad said:
You know, the article never stated how old the leftovers were. I'm guessing they were much older than any of us usually keep (weeks? article doesn't state), since both the young man and his roommate got sick from the food. It is just unfortunate that the one young man had an abnormally bad reaction from the food.

Kurt
Click to expand...
I read the story first elsewhere and I thought he ate leftovers from night before. So did his roommate.
 
Food safety is something we used to learn in Home Economics and 4-H. I remember being surprised at some illnesses brought on by food. My kids don't seem to realize that most meats shouldn't be kept for more than 72 hours after cooking, even if you refrigerate right away. Our son and his wife get stomachaches often, but the kids don't get the stomachaches because they eat the same foods all of the time. They don't eat regular food, which is really just so weird. Chicken nuggets, spaghetti-os, quesadillas, and a few other foods is all they eat.
 
What is Home Economics ? Is that class taught to today's high school students? LOL
 
geekette said:
Nah, it showed up on Yahoo days ago.
Click to expand...
I did several searches, and not a single article stated the leftovers were from the night before, or even any indication of how old the leftovers were. Many articles were written in such a way that a casual reader may have thought that was the case, however. For example, one article I found wrote:

"The Massachusetts college student had eaten rice, chicken and lo mein from a restaurant. Soon after, he felt abdominal pain..."

One might think, from that line, "OMG, he got sick hours after eating food obtained at that restaurant." But earlier in the article it stated:

"Hours after eating leftovers from a restaurant..." (my emphasis)

Tricky wording, IMO. No mention of a timeline between when the leftovers were brought from the restaurant to when they were consumed. If the leftovers were truly from the night before, I would think that information would have been highlighted in every article, since that would clearly indicate there was a problem with the food at the restaurant and there certainly would have been an investigation of that restaurant (remember, this incident happened a year ago; it just went viral this week).

Let's face it -- we all know that these article writers write in such a way to try and shock the reader. That results in more hits and in the end, more pay. Can't really blame the writers; they're just trying to maximize their income.

The most likely scenario is that those leftovers were very old. Otherwise, there would be many other incidents like this since, let's face it, thousands of people bring home leftovers from noodle restaurants every single day.

Kurt
 
This happened last year. The news articles picked it up from The New England Journal of Medicine article that was written on his treatment.

Being a year old and the original article was based on the presentation of the illness and treatment, the details on how the food was stored prior to being consumed was lost.

The fact that two people consumed the product and got ill, points to the fact that:
  • It was not properly reheated
There are several questions:
  • How LONG was it stored
  • HOW was it stored
  • What was the QUALITY of the original product
It looks like that the poor 19YO may have been immunocompromised which made him sicker than his roommate who just threw-up.
 
This was on Inside Edition last night. They showed the young man in the hospital - wow - I can't believe what it did to his body. They also had some expert advising everyone not to leave food out more than two hours. Of course he had other advice for the viewers. How long left overs should be kept in the refrigerator. Look at it, smell it, and so on. They showed a reenactment of what he did/ symptoms right after and it showed the actor was taken the food out of the refrigerator. How accurate is the report? How long was it in there?
 
Wow, that article describes exactly what we and most of the rice eating world don't do regarding cooked rice. We leave it out and eat it when we want. If you put it in the fridge it gets hard and chunky. Leftover Asian foods do go into the fridge but not plain rice.

Bill
 
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