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Cookery Know-howIngredients, methods and kitchen questions

Ask Chef Col · food safety

Is it safe to reheat cooked rice?

Yes, as long as the rice was cooled quickly and kept in the fridge. Chill leftover rice within about an hour, eat it within 24 hours, and reheat it only once, until it is steaming hot all the way through.

Answered by Chef Col · follows UK Food Standards Agency and NHS advice

The scienceWhy rice needs care

Uncooked rice can carry spores of a bacterium called Bacillus cereus, and those spores are tough enough to survive cooking.[1,2]

If the cooked rice then sits about warm, at room temperature, the spores wake up and the bacteria start to multiply. The longer it is left, the higher the risk.[1,2]

As they grow, the bacteria can make toxins that cause food poisoning, and reheating will not get rid of them. So the danger is not the reheating itself: it is how the rice was cooled and stored before it went back in the pan or microwave.[2,1]

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency: Home food fact checker (rice: cool quickly, fridge, eat within 24 hours, reheat once until steaming hot; takeaway and frozen rice)
  2. Food Standards Agency, Safer Food Better Business: Safe method, rice (spores, toxins that reheating will not get rid of, chill within one hour, use within 24 hours)
  3. NHS: Children’s food: safety and hygiene (cool rice within 1 hour, eat within 24 hours, never reheat more than once)

Checked against these sources on 2 November 2026, and written in our own words. UK advice: if you are cooking for anyone very young, elderly, pregnant or unwell, follow official guidance.