Food poisoning is THE FREAKIN WORST.

It can be a seriously rough day or 2 constantly running to the bathroom.

And if you have an underlying condition like Crohn’s or colitis, it can genuinely be deadly.

There has been much discussion of proper food prep techniques over the ages.

Some of it helpful, some of it confusing the matter.

One woman on TikTok named Marie, a microbiologist PhD, has some words of wisdom to share about one food in particular:

RICE

One of the key takeaways here, is what’s called ‘optimal growing temperature’.

And that’s for the bad stuff…

You do NOT want that temperature to be optimal. She explains.

“Most things that are going to cause human disease have an optimal growing temperature between about 20º C and 30º C.”

Putting it in perspective,

“So that’s about room temperature [at 20º] to about human body temperature [at 30º]”

Her plea: “Don’t ever let your food that needs to be cooked sit out at room temperature.”

She goes into great detail in her video, giving real-world advice, providing scientific back-story on what’s going on.

And with rice in particular, it comes down to an organism called Bacillus cereus.

It’s on the same family tree as anthrax, botulism and C. diff.

A very unpleasant set of family members.

Very…toxic…

I’ll see myself out now.

Make sure to check out her full video here, it’s worth a watch, if at least for the background!

@mariedoesstuff

Food safety folks! Its not just for restaurants! #biologyfacts #rice #cooking #cookingtips

♬ original sound – mariedoesstuff

Let’s see if people in the comments took one word (‘dying’), and assumed that’s the only bad thing that can happen from leaving your rice out!

Oh look. Whadya know.

One person had a question about the pre-cooked varietal.

While another commenter just threw in the towel.

Rice, rice, baby.

Come on.

I had to.

If you liked that story, check out this video from a former Chipotle employee who reveals how the company cheats customers out of food.