Natalie Stanton

Hmm.

So if the rice is in the danger zone for too long, so over the hour and a half, two hours, there's potentially going to be enough time for the bacteria to form these spores.

Let's say you then put the rice into the fridge and the next day you want to reheat it.

Even if you blast the rice in the microwave, there's a very high chance that you will not kill the bacteria because they're protected by the spores.

So it can be done safely.

But what it means is once you've cooked the rice, cool it as quickly as possible, then put it into the fridge.

And we would say food safety wise, use cooked rice within 24 hours.

And when it comes to reheating it, reheat it until it's steaming hot all the way through.

Yes.

I mean, to be honest, I would say with rice as well, if you can just cook it fresh.

I know this could be challenging, obviously, with meal prepping people trying to save time.

But if everything else is prepped and it's just the rice you're cooking fresh, maybe that could be possible.

Yes.

So definitely like this is so important in terms of food waste as well.

So, yes, you can freeze that raw meat up until midnight on the day of the use by date.

And then when you want to use it, take it out of the freezer, thoroughly defrost it.

Once it's defrosted, then you want to use it within 24 hours.

So that's not from when you take out the freezer, it's from once it's defrosted, use them in 24 hours.

And then let's say you cook this chicken that was raw, that you've frozen, that you've then defrosted, you cook it, you can then freeze that cooked chicken.