There is much to love about fried rice. The delicious dish is simple, filling, and can be packed with any ingredients you like.
But just like with all great things, there’s a potential for fried rice to go bad – and we’re not talking about a lack of flavour.
If fried rice isn’t cooked and prepared correctly, it could wind up sending you to the hospital.
Germaine Mobley, 62, from Texas knows this all too well.
After dining at a restaurant called Asian King Buffet in Waxahachie just outside of Dallas and ordering the fried rice, she felt incredibly ill as she tried to drive home.
The restaurant maintains that she did not get sick as a result of their establishment, but Mobley is fairly adamant that she did.
When she got home, Mobley wound up vomiting constantly, and her pre-existing health conditions suffered.
The next day, she began to experience breathing difficulties, and her concerned husband called for an ambulance. And it was a good thing he did.
Mobley was suffering so severely that she had to be placed in the Intensive Care Unit and a ventilator used so she could breathe safely.
She remained in the ICU for eight whole days, and now, she’s aiming to sue Asian King Buffet for US$1 million.
But what exactly happened to Mobley? The answer is simple: a type of food poisoning known by a misleadingly amusing name – “fried rice syndrome”.
Anyone who has ever had food poisoning knows just how uncomfortable, horrible, and sometimes debilitating it can be, but fried rice syndrome is potentially much more harmful.
Fried rice syndrome can be contracted when the fried rice in question is prepared incorrectly. Many fried rice dishes make use of rice that is left to cool at a room temperature for several hours.
This is done in order to prevent the rice from clumping together, and also to stop it from clumping with the rest of the ingredients that will be mixed in later on.
Unfortunately, it is very important that the chefs in question do not leave the rice dish out for too long, or else a bacteria called bacillus cereus begins to take hold on the rice.
This is why most professional chefs will not leave the rice out for periods of longer than six hours. It’s a period of time that needs to be very closely monitored and stuck to.
For those cooking at home, cooling rice on a flat surface will get it to the right temperature quickly and avoid the contraction of this bacteria.
Bacillus cereus is responsible for producing one of two kinds of illnesses due to the toxins it creates. For some, it will cause diarrhea, and for others – like Mobley – it will cause vomiting and nausea.
This bacteria is often found on many foods and multiples very rapidly when at room temperature.
Mobley and her lawyer, Kathryn Knotts, hope that this tale will serve as a good warning to those who enjoy this dish to be careful with how often it has been left out.
It might just save you a trip to the hospital.