14 replies to this topic

[hygienic]

Hi :

Can I get precise detailes regarding the shelf life of cooked rice stored in the refrigerator or coold room as we are catering company and we should know exactly the shelf life of some high risk foods like cooked rice and cooked meat .



Regards

Hygienice

[GMO]

Very difficult. I would suggest you can only get this by testing as your cooling technique particularly will be crucial to deciding the food safety.

For rice, the key things will be food safety first over food quality. You could test this but I would wager that you could keep cooked rice for 3-5 days, maybe even as many as 10 days, covered in single use containers chilled to less than 5 degrees without significant deterioration in the eating quality, however, this rice should be cooled quickly after eating and as I suggested, I would not put it into a container you mean to "dip into" and if reheated the rice should only be reheated once and very quickly.

However, as rice is the absolute typical food to cause Bacillus cereus food poisoning, I would be very cautious. If you are producing food for vulnerable groups, (e.g. kids or the elderly) I wouldn't bother, I mean, how hard is it to cook rice to requirements? It takes 10 mins! So if you're serious about this and you want to ensure safety, I would design some experiments and send it to a local microbiological lab (particularly for B. cereus but also other indicator groups, e.g. TVC, enteros or coliforms etc.) Micro testing isn't that expensive and it's easy to do. It can also give you a bit of confidence in your process. By doing this in fact you would be validating your process as designed for your HACCP study. Certainly I would not take someone's suggestion on here as being "the answer" for your shelf life question without further work in your facility.

Note, I would not try and obtain more than 10 days shelf life (and would probably guess in a catering non high / low risk segregated environment that it would be advisable to go for less) due to the risk of Clostridium botulinum. Although the rice would presumably be packed in an aerobic environment, if there is a large amount, there can be anaerobic "pockets" and 10 days is normally considered the absolute maximum for low acid chilled foods if a botulinum cook is not acheived or other hurdle factors aren't employed.

[rosem]

Hi;

My facility is a hotel so simliar like yours. In fact there is no rule or direction for storage time. You should determine it by analyse result and finally verify this.

In my company;

Cooked rice 2 days (but if it is cooked with no vegetable or meat), İf it ingredients meat just 1 day. You know reheating is very important.

Cooked meat 2 days

Fish& sea product just 1 day

Regards :)

[Charles.C]

Dear Hygienic,

Not surprisingly, this is an enormously popular question and i think has appeared several times on this forum for various products.

Lot of good advice already in this thread, can also have a look at -

http://shelflifeadvi...uidelines-brief

which I sourced from here -

http://wiki.answers....he_refrigerator

Rgds / Charles.C

The most common problem IMEX is dehydration after more than one day requiring addition of (boiled/refrigerated) water prior to covered (microwave) reheating to visible steam production (unvalidated method but not had a problem in several years for small quantities / readily cooled leftovers). If too dry after 3-4 days, it becomes the traditional British Rice Pudding.

[Simon]

Can you provide some feedback to the responses Hygienice.

[hygienic]

Very difficult. I would suggest you can only get this by testing as your cooling technique particularly will be crucial to deciding the food safety.

For rice, the key things will be food safety first over food quality. You could test this but I would wager that you could keep cooked rice for 3-5 days, maybe even as many as 10 days, covered in single use containers chilled to less than 5 degrees without significant deterioration in the eating quality, however, this rice should be cooled quickly after eating and as I suggested, I would not put it into a container you mean to "dip into" and if reheated the rice should only be reheated once and very quickly.

However, as rice is the absolute typical food to cause Bacillus cereus food poisoning, I would be very cautious. If you are producing food for vulnerable groups, (e.g. kids or the elderly) I wouldn't bother, I mean, how hard is it to cook rice to requirements? It takes 10 mins! So if you're serious about this and you want to ensure safety, I would design some experiments and send it to a local microbiological lab (particularly for B. cereus but also other indicator groups, e.g. TVC, enteros or coliforms etc.) Micro testing isn't that expensive and it's easy to do. It can also give you a bit of confidence in your process. By doing this in fact you would be validating your process as designed for your HACCP study. Certainly I would not take someone's suggestion on here as being "the answer" for your shelf life question without further work in your facility.

Note, I would not try and obtain more than 10 days shelf life (and would probably guess in a catering non high / low risk segregated environment that it would be advisable to go for less) due to the risk of Clostridium botulinum. Although the rice would presumably be packed in an aerobic environment, if there is a large amount, there can be anaerobic "pockets" and 10 days is normally considered the absolute maximum for low acid chilled foods if a botulinum cook is not acheived or other hurdle factors aren't employed.

Dear GMO:


Actually We are producing the cooked rice for vulnerable groups especially old ages .and as you and me aware bacillus cereuce
under favorable conditions start the germenation fast . I think 3 days maximum to keep the cooked rice in chiller (5 degree).

Thank you for your response its appreciated

[hygienic]

Dear Hygienic,

Not surprisingly, this is an enormously popular question and i think has appeared several times on this forum for various products.

Lot of good advice already in this thread, can also have a look at -

http://shelflifeadvi...uidelines-brief

which I sourced from here -

http://wiki.answers....he_refrigerator

Rgds / Charles.C

The most common problem IMEX is dehydration after more than one day requiring addition of (boiled/refrigerated) water prior to covered (microwave) reheating to visible steam production (unvalidated method but not had a problem in several years for small quantities / readily cooled leftovers). If too dry after 3-4 days, it becomes the traditional British Rice Pudding.

Dear Charles:

Always I receive the best from you . Thanks for the links


Hygienic

[hygienic]

Hi;

My facility is a hotel so simliar like yours. In fact there is no rule or direction for storage time. You should determine it by analyse result and finally verify this.

In my company;

Cooked rice 2 days (but if it is cooked with no vegetable or meat), İf it ingredients meat just 1 day. You know reheating is very important.

Cooked meat 2 days

Fish& sea product just 1 day

Regards :)

Dear Rosem:

The rice is white rice without additions , and we preserve it in shallow sanitize trays(washed and sanitize in pot washing machine).

I think many factors can extend the shelf life like chiller temperature , sanitation of the equipments that the rice will place in it.


Many thanks for the input

Regards

Hygienic

[GMO]

Dear GMO:


Actually We are producing the cooked rice for vulnerable groups especially old ages .and as you and me aware bacillus cereuce
under favorable conditions start the germenation fast . I think 3 days maximum to keep the cooked rice in chiller (5 degree).

Thank you for your response its appreciated

Then as I said, I wouldn't bother with the risk.

[Tony-C]

Hi :
Can I get precise detailes regarding the shelf life of cooked rice stored in the refrigerator or coold room as we are catering company and we should know exactly the shelf life of some high risk foods like cooked rice and cooked meat .
Regards
Hygienice

A refrigerated shelf life guide from one of the IFSQN Food Service Systems:

 PRP 024 Refrigerated Food Storage Shelf Life.pdf   67.4KB   134 downloads

As GMO has indicated Bacillus cereus is a classic food poisoning risk in rice when lack of temperature control permits toxin production. There is a Risk Profile from NZFSA here:
http://www.nzfsa.gov...s-in-rice-1.pdf

It would be virtually impossible for Clostridium botulinum to be a risk unless you were bottling, canning or hermetically sealing the rice for storage.

[redchariot]

Don't know whether this is any use; I work in a factory which uses cooked rice in its products; it is allowed 24 hours at refrigerated conditions by when it must be used. All validated through micro tests etc but to be honest, we didn't go for longer as we found that the quality of the rice suffers after time even if the micro is ok

[GMO]

A refrigerated shelf life guide from one of the IFSQN Food Service Systems:

 PRP 024 Refrigerated Food Storage Shelf Life.pdf   67.4KB   134 downloads

As GMO has indicated Bacillus cereus is a classic food poisoning risk in rice when lack of temperature control permits toxin production. There is a Risk Profile from NZFSA here:
http://www.nzfsa.gov...s-in-rice-1.pdf

It would be virtually impossible for Clostridium botulinum to be a risk unless you were bottling, canning or hermetically sealing the rice for storage.

Not so, it depends on the volume stored and the conditions, I would imagine in a several kilo tub of rice, near the bottom there would be significant numbers of anaerobic microenvironments:

"In air-packaged products, aerobic spoilage organisms provide sensory signs of spoilage before the formation of toxin by C. botulinum. However, even in air packaging it is possible for anaerobic micro-environments to exist and toxin may form if the product is subject to severe time/temperature abuse. For that reason, the country where the product is consumed may still require water phase salt as a barrier to growth"

http://www.ifr.ac.uk..._report0707.pdf

[hygienic]

Hi:

I took sample from cooked rice with veg produced before 3 days of production day for microbiological test and the result showes No TPC , E.coli but some Staph colonies appear . Is that mean that the rice unfit to consume? I am not fully aware about micro so waiting to hear from you.


Regards

Hygienic

[Tony-C]

Not so, it depends on the volume stored and the conditions, I would imagine in a several kilo tub of rice, near the bottom there would be significant numbers of anaerobic microenvironments:

"In air-packaged products, aerobic spoilage organisms provide sensory signs of spoilage before the formation of toxin by C. botulinum. However, even in air packaging it is possible for anaerobic micro-environments to exist and toxin may form if the product is subject to severe time/temperature abuse. For that reason, the country where the product is consumed may still require water phase salt as a barrier to growth"

http://www.ifr.ac.uk..._report0707.pdf

Crikey we're not disagreeing again!

The article you are quoting from is "Clostridium botulinum in vacuum packed (VP) and modified atmosphere packed (MAP) chilled foods - IFR"

The quote you have given relates to Smoked Fish.

Some extracts

A total of 527 independent challenge test datasets with storage at 8°C were considered, and 100 of these were positive for toxin at day 10. Of the 100 positive tests, 56 were with raw or smoked fish, 41 were with sterile or pre-cooked food, two with sous-vide foods, and one with salted ham (Table 8). Based on these data there is a possibility that if contaminated with spores of non-proteolytic C. botulinum, raw or smoked fish could become toxic within 10 days at 8°C.
Trout produced by major UK manufacturers is generally packed with the presence of oxygen (i.e. not VP) in order to control the potential for C. botulinum growth and toxin formation.
The 2005 Food Code states that except for fish that is frozen before, during, and after packaging, a food establishment may not package fish using a reduced oxygen packaging method.

Various challenge test studies tend to support this view, with toxin only being found in products stored at temperatures of 12°C and above, and usually accompanied by overt product spoilage.

MAP/VP products, is that while challenge test data may indicate the potential for growth and toxin formation, it is known that many thousands of millions of packs of product of this type have been sold around the world, with no evidence of botulism having occurred.

The article also reports no toxin production in rice.

How is that boy of yours doing anyway?

Regards,

Tony

Edited by Tony-C, 27 August 2010 - 05:43 AM.

[Charles.C]

Dear All,

Regarding the amazing document linked by GMO ( ), one can only admire the effort which must have gone into its production however the executive summary’s unusually (IMO) honest presentation somewhat took away my confidence in the current control procedures of the UK chilled food industry, not to mention the proceeding with changes as described in step 4 below, eg (pg 7) -

3. It is not easy to determine the maximum shelf-life of chilled foods at 8°C (where other controlling factors are not known) on only the data from 1307 independent challenge tests of toxin formation by inoculated non-proteolytic C. botulinum. It is clear that, given the correct circumstances, if present, non-proteolytic C. botulinum is able to form toxin in 10 days or less at 8°C. Also, predictive models indicate that toxin formation can occur in 10 days or less at 8°C (the model in ComBase Predictor estimates toxin formation in 6 days at 8°C). That toxin formation has not occurred in correctly stored short shelf-life chilled foods sold in the UK (and internationally) must be due to presence of one or more “unknown controlling factors”. The difficulty is that the magnitude, variability, and nature of these “unknown controlling factors” is not known, and it is suspected that the magnitude, variability, and nature are not the same for all chilled foods. The position is therefore that while short shelf-life foods have been produced safely in the UK (and internationally) for more than two decades, it is not known why they are safe with respect to foodborne botulism, or what the safety margins are.

4. Based on the extensive sales of chilled foods without any incidence of foodborne botulism (when correctly stored), current industrial practice (application of GMP, GHP and HACCP principles) would appear to provide a good level of protection. It would seem reasonable, therefore, that current industrial practice be allowed to continue. It is noted that in the UK the majority of commercially produced pre-packaged chilled foods have a shelf life greater than 5 days, and some have a shelf life greater than 10 days without receiving any of the control measured specified by the ACMSF (1992). Consideration should therefore be given to the FSA including “storage at ≤8°C and a shelf-life of ≤10 days” in their document, rather than “storage at ≤5°C and a shelf-life of ≤10 days or storage at 5°-8°C and a shelf-life of ≤5 days”. It is cautioned, however, that if present, non-proteolytic C. botulinum can form toxin in 10 days and less at 8°C, and there is insufficient clear information as to what the safety margins are in foods as sold, particularly when attempting to take into account the temperature performance of the complete chill chain throughout foods’ shelf lives. It is therefore strongly recommended that extreme caution be used when modifying current industrial practice (e.g. extending the shelf-life of chilled foods over that currently used), and in the development of new products. Since, although current industrial practice appears safe, it is possible that chilled foods could be produced for which a 10 day shelf life at 8°C would not be suitable. It would seem logical to apply this approach to all chilled food sold in the UK.

Rgds / Charles.C