If you reheat food, you need to hear what this dietitian has to say.

When food is hot, it tastes the best. Food doesn’t taste as good as it should when it gets cold. So, people reheat food to get back to the way it tasted before.

What if, though, we told you that warming food could hurt your health? It is, yes.

Kim Lindsay, an Australian nutritionist who is licenced to practise, said that reheating these four foods could make you sick.

The things she said might surprise you.

Rice
Lindsay said in an interview with Dailymail, “Rice is a big risk. These spores can withstand heat, so even if you heat them up, they can still cause dangerous pathogens.

Bacillus cereus is a type of bacteria that doesn’t die when rice is cooked. It can make you sick.

Bacillus cereus spores can grow in rice that is left out at room temperature, according to the National Health Service. These will grow and may make poisons that make you throw up or have diarrhoea.

The NHS also said, “The longer you leave rice at room temperature, the more likely it is that poisonous substances will develop.”

If you don’t want to get sick, you should cool your rice as soon as you can. Also, you shouldn’t keep rice for more than a day before you eat it.

For something to be reheated, it must be hot all the way through and have the right amount of steam.

Kim also said that cooking potatoes could make you sick. Like rice, it is dangerous when it is at room temperature. If it goes on for more than two hours, Clostridium botulinum could grow.

These germs could cause botulism, which paralyses a person by attacking nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

NHS says that when germs don’t get enough oxygen, they make toxins that cause botulism. This is why food-borne botulism is usually caused by cans or bottles that have been sealed.

She also said, “Cooking potatoes in foil could increase the risk of botulism because the foil keeps oxygen out and could help bacteria grow in the potato.”

Kim said, “Reheating mashed potatoes made with perishable ingredients like milk, butter, and cream could also make you sicker.”

She also said that the steam heating should be done right.

Spinach
If this green veggie is cooked wrong, it could cause a disease called listeriosis. It is a dangerous infection that can cause fever, flu-like symptoms, confusion, seizures, and much more.

It’s because the vegetables can house the bacteria listeria.

Kim said, “Listeria is often found in pre-made salads and store-bought greens.”

NHS said that you could get listeriosis from dairy goods made with unpasteurized milk, cheeses like camembert and brie, and sliced meats.

Eggs were number four on the list of foods that you should never heat up again.

Salmonella can be found in eggs, which can make you sick with diarrhoea, stomach pain, fever, and vomiting.

Kim said that eggs kept at temperatures between 40 and 165 degrees Fahrenheit (4C and 74C) are in the ‘danger zone.’

She said, “At that temperature, pathogens can grow more quickly.”

“When we eat a food with more pathogens and harmful bacteria, we are more likely to get food poisoning,” she said.

NHS says that you should only reheat food once, because doing it more than once could make you sick.