How to Store Food with Science

Eggs - to refrigerate or not to refrigerate? What about tomatoes or potatoes? Rice? Bananas? Lisa dons her food detective hat and shares the correct food storage methods for some common foods.
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[@wariom4135]

wow, I've been eating off rice for my whole life

[@theblacksmokerartscrafts1959]

What!!? I don't know how the the rest of the world survives without these amazing scientific advise.

[@nonneponne]

Would be nice to have more info about the rice bacteria thing. I assume a lot of people leave their rice outside of the fridge for more than 2hours, probably overnight. Is it just a really harmless bacteria or are people just lucky? or whats going on here?

[@rdizzy1]

Who leaves cooked rice outside of the fridge overnight? Never heard of that.

[@oldcowbb]

never get sick because of this

[@rdizzy1]

oldcowbb I mean using anecdotal evidence of you (even all of the people you know) not getting "sick" from this, is largely irrelevant, as we know how this bacteria effects humans, and we know that it grows on cooked rice.

[@nonneponne]

rdizzy1 affects humans how?

[@rdizzy1]

nonneponne Read the wiki and subsequent sources on the specific bacteria. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus Then maybe go on google scholar and search for effects of bacillus cereus on humans

[@rdizzy1]

Weird, I've always eaten reheated rice. Sometimes I've even cooked it once, let it cool on the stove, put it in the fridge, microwaved the whole bowl, eaten half of it, then back in the fridge, then reheat the rest again for 3 times reheated rice.

[@hugolindum7728]

Yep....and so have several billion Chinese and Indians. It's a myth.

[@jttttttttttt]

I'm eating reheated rice as I watched this video. I think it may be more of an issue *if* B. cereus is in the rice, and *if* you leave it out for an extended amount of time.

[@rdizzy1]

Hugo Lindum It's not a myth, almost all uncooked rice has these bacteria spores in them, and they start growing when they reach certain conditions. They also know how they react and effect humans when ingested, and exactly how fast they grow at a given temperature. I just happened to not get sick enough to notice. Large populations can develop resistance to certain bacteria strains, this is what is most likely happening there.

[@michaeljohnston6393]

I recommend explaining that the "ripening" mentioned as result of ethylene is not really that but softening. Ripening stops when the fruit is picked from its stem.

[@gyanendrasahooroll1192]

I can smell these from here

[@fvh028]

I typically cook rice for lunch and will reheat them for dinner and if there is enough left, fry them for breakfast the next day. Still not dead. Am I a super human?

[@NetAndyCz]

I prefer to stuff in liquid nitrogen, no spoilage from the nasty oxygen in the atmosphere.

[@buccleuch7621]

Nice informative video and well presented. Shame about the intrusive music.

[@annarboriter]

The Maillard effect is the oxygenization of amino acids

[@johnpossum556]

Great video but I learned from Asian friends that it is OK to leave cooked rice out. I often leave it out a night or two. In fact the more its out and dries out a bit the better fried rice it makes. Oh, and I've never gotten sick doing this. Of course I throw it out if I see mold.

[@Nilguiri]

So it definitely does produce mould, then. You are just counting in noticing it to stay safe. Sounds like a great plan!

[@johnpossum556]

As I learned from having a Sharper Image Ion Breeze Air purifier mold is everywhere. Even right now you are breathing it constantly. The mold on rice only grows faster when its summertime conditions. warm, humid, damp

[@rdizzy1]

Bacteria/mold can be harmful way before you are able to see it. The mold spores are on almost all dry uncooked rice inherently, they just don't successfully grow until they meet certain conditions (cooking them and letting them sit being the main one) The sickness from the mold is literally usually called "fried rice syndrome", because of this specific bacteria. It's well studied that the population of bacteria double in 30 minutes on cooked rice at or above room temp.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

That's all nice and well - and I'm quite ready to believe those bacteria can do nasty stuff under just the right conditions - but none of it explains why almost nobody ever gets sick in spite of LOTS of people leaving rice un-refrigerated for considerable amounts of time. Do frequently exposed people get partial immunity or something? Are the bacteria mostly harmless most of the time? Are they not present at all most of the time? What gives...? Because something sure doesn't add up AT ALL.

[@rdizzy1]

Attila Asztalos It's because the bacteria aren't deadly or anything for an average human that isn't a baby or very elderly it just causes mild intestinal issues up to a few bouts of diarrhea and is pretty much done in 24 hours. What people call "food poisoning" could be anything from a mild stomach ache to full blown hospitalization or death (I would imagine people technically get food poisoning all the time without ever even knowing it). Maybe some subset of the population does have somewhat of a "partial immunity" to the effects as well. As people going on vacation to other countries frequently have issues with water or foods from the area when those citizens don't.

[@imager8763]

Why is the music louder than the speaker?

[@umeng2002]

To refrigerate or to refriger -at

[@bigdickpornsuperstar]

RIce, really? Aside from extremophiles, I find it difficult to believe any plant, bacterial, or fungal spore normally found in rice could survive boiling temperatures for the length of time it takes to cook rice. I think it more likely that the spores arrive while the cooked rice is left sitting out... like a bread mold, an environmental contamination and not something included in the product itself.

[@stevephillips8083]

Pro tips!

[@abdulbasithashraf5480]

How about a microwave heating of the rice?

[@johnpossum556]

the claim is, I believe, once the toxins are there that heat will not kill them off. same would be true of microwaving.

[@Lens98052]

Nice presenter and production quality. Lousy subject matter detail.

[@ryklatortuga4146]

Yoda want blue milk

[@buddhablack3316]

I thought she was sat on the floor with a really flat skirt on

[@zzzlife]

Very informative video, but will need to watch it couple of times to understand what she is saying, because she is speaking way too fast and the video is moving way too fast!!!

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

We're working on getting some subtitles!

[@ergbudster3333]

Very simple. Click on the settings icon at the bottom of the video (on the right). Set the speed slower. Sounds a little bit funny but you get used to that very quick. I do this all the time.. especially for videos which are deliberately speeded up to cram in more content under the time limit.

[@mccfrank1212]

Yeah she doesn't speak very clearly and much too quickly.

[@steam2300]

If UK chickens are vaccinated against salmonella, does that mean that it's safe to eat under cooked chickens from the UK?

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Unfortunately salmonella isn't the only pathogen that makes it home in chickens, so we wouldn't recommend eating raw chicken and neither would the FSA - www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/campylobacter-levels-hold-steady?navref=search-news-alerts-news-6

[@tabaks]

I prefer my way of storing foods, thank you very much.

[@johnpossum556]

In the cloud, right? Ya know they're less fattening that way!

[@tabaks]

On low haging branches so drive-by commenters can reach them.

[@ex-nerd]

"Starch, a carbohydrate is broken down into glucose, a sugar". Sugars are carbohydrates, too...

[@Hennesii]

She’s beautiful, I’ll store the tomatoes however she wants them stored lol

[@badshabz1]

First

[@Sonex1542]

Waste of time, and that heavy English accent was difficult to listen to.

[@johnpossum556]

actually I think its pretty decent. a lot of people don't know they should store taters out. same goes with garlic.... putting it in the fridge just makes it sprout.

[@Nilguiri]

It's just a regular RP English accent, you philistine!

[@EliteXtasy]

This isn't even RP. It's just the standard Estuary accent typical to the South of England, but found throughout the country. Every English accent is a heavy English accent. The Royal Institution is an English institution - what other accent do you expect??? Yours!?? Ha!

[@Nilguiri]

EliteXtasy True, it's not particularly RP now that you mention it. Just a regular south-east English accent.

[@ratlinggull2223]

git gud at listening