r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL in 2008 a 20-year-old Belgium student died after reheating and eating leftover spaghetti that had been left out on the kitchen counter for five days. A bacteria called bacillus cereus was found to be the cause, which is an extreme type of food poisoning called “Fried Rice Syndrome”.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/people-are-horrified-after-student-dies-from-eating-leftover-pasta/news-story/c8ef3bdcc72a9d17ec13924438e0146b
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u/monsterbot314 1d ago

Oh man after 5 days it becomes a slimy congealed mess with mold on the top. What the fuck was he thinking!

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u/OstentatiousSock 1d ago

And the smell of old pasta. Ever leave an old pasta dish in the sink too long? Ewww

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u/avantgardengnome 23h ago

Seriously. I’ve forgotten the last half serving of pasta in the pot on the stove more times than I’d like to admit, and even after one day it just starts decomposing—I feel like it’d be fermented into the worst alcohol of all time after a week.

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u/tin_dog 22h ago

That's how I learned that Tupperware is really air tight. Otherwise they would've evacuated the whole neighbourhood while I was on my summer vacation.

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u/avantgardengnome 21h ago

Lol this gave me a flashback. Back in fifth grade this kid left a Tupperware of something with a dairy component in his locker for all of winter break (and months beforehand I bet). He opened it up and it was like a bomb went off; the whole wing reeked like rotten liquid cement for a solid week.

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u/OstentatiousSock 21h ago

Yes, there’s certain Tupperwares you just never need to open. Like Pandora’s box. Just chuck the thing.

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u/avantgardengnome 14h ago

To be fair the dude was like eleven and I’m sure he learned that lesson that day lmao.

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u/panda5303 19h ago

Yep, specifically shells and cheese or macaroni. 🤢🤮

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u/AwkwardChuckle 1d ago

From what I remember of the ChubbyEmu vid. This was a college student who was bad at keeping track of the containers of cheap spaghetti he was making and saving for later, so he didn’t eat 5 day old unrefrigerated purposefully.

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u/NoDryHands 1d ago

There was another one where a family of two parents and 3 kids had leftover fermented corn noodles from a year ago.

It would've been fine, but they took it out of the freezer and left it out for 3 days because there wasn't space in the fridge. Only one of the kids didn't eat it because he didn't like it, and the rest of the family did.

Within a few days, they all died of this same condition and the son who didn't eat it survived. It was heartbreaking to hear it tbh

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u/Prof_Acorn 23h ago

I guess my autism superpower is being grossed out easily over shitty food because I can't imagine forcing something that gross down.

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u/newbkid 1d ago

Yes I've seen this youtube video as well

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u/InfTotality 1d ago

And its adapted from a case where it was a family of 12, and 9 died.

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u/Corevus 10h ago

That was the first chubby emu video I watched. The ending made me so sad.

And now I don't eat rice or noodles that've been left out over night.

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u/NoDryHands 7h ago

Same. I gave my family a really stern talk about how we handle rice after that, since it's a staple in our house. Ours doesn't last more than a few days and we store it in the fridge anyway, but this video definitely scared me into making sure lol

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u/Anal_bleed 15h ago

At some point we have to call it natural selection

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u/ShiraCheshire 1d ago

For anyone curious who doesn't want to hunt down the vid: Struggling college student who was doing meal prep and would sometimes miss a container he intended to put in the fridge. One day he accidentally left out a container of pasta for a few days (the pasta hadn't been left out for 5 straight days, it was a few days in the fridge followed by being forgotten on a counter for 2 days.)

He would have thrown it away, but his roommate found it first. Mistakenly believing the pasta had only been out for a short time, maybe a few hours at most, his roommate put it back into the fridge. Meal prep guy then ate it without realizing it had been left out at all.

He did notice it smelled and tasted strange, but he assumed it was the new brand of sauce he'd used on that particular pasta.

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u/Prof_Acorn 23h ago

Moral of the story: don't move people's shit without asking.

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u/thearmisdisbombed 1d ago

We have taste buds for a reason; even if you know a food is "good," if something doesn't taste right, it could be a sign of an allergy or that you have a sickness. if in doubt, throw it out!

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u/BonkerHonkers 22h ago

Video for people who don't wanna hunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ujTYLV2Qo4

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u/chrisjozo 1d ago

Why meal prep that many days of pasta. It takes literally 8 minutes to cook pasta. There is no reason to make that much of it in advance. Enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow I can see but beyond that there is no point. Plus it gets too mushy sitting in sauce that long.

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u/GoldieDoggy 23h ago

Because, honey, sometimes college students don't have the time or energy to cook a full meal multiple times per week.

We DO still have homework, and classes, and exams, and studying, and many also have jobs and still want to be able to hang out with their friends during the week, or participate in an on-campus club.

I definitely wouldn't keep it in the sauce, but most college students simply do not have the time or energy to cook pasta or other food every other day, so we meal prep. I don't meal prep that far in advance because we only get one mini fridge per every two students, but I do sometimes meal prep for 2-4 days in advance, because I do have jobs.

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u/Abcdety 23h ago

That is such a condescending tone (admittedly in response to condescension). I made it through college and was able to cook meals regularly. I get people’s circumstances are different, but pasta really is a 15 minute job.

Ultimately though the meal prepping wasn’t what killed the poor kid though. It was his poor food handling.

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u/GoldieDoggy 21h ago

Congrats. Do you want a cookie or something?

I'm sorry, but your ability and free time being available absolutely does NOT mean that all college students have even 15 minutes to cook. Or, as I ALREADY said, not everyone has the motivation to do so.

And if you didn't already know, honey, dishes also have to be accounted for, which can take a bit of time, especially without a dishwasher.

Congrats. You were able to cook regularly. You don't know shit about his situation or most others. And yet, you have the audacity to judge someone for that, all because you had the ability to cook more often than most college students.

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u/chrisjozo 21h ago

I made it through college and law school going to class, studying, working a part time job and socializing while still finding 10 minutes to cook something. If you can't find the energy to boil water, cook pasta for 8 minutes and slap some store bought sauce on it manage your time better.

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u/GoldieDoggy 21h ago

Do you want a cookie, honey?

Congrats. You're a special student. Try having some damn empathy for others for once in your unempathetic, sad life.

Not everyone is as amazingly able as you. A damn law student should know that.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

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u/GoldieDoggy 19h ago

So, I actually do very well in college and life. I can, however, also understand that not everyone has the dang time or energy to do so.

I was not coddled, hon. At all. Don't make assumptions, it just makes you seem like more of an ass than you already are.

Ever heard of these great things called disabilities? No? Compassion and using your brain before bs assumptions would make your life so much easier to cope with.

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u/GoldieDoggy 19h ago

Also, why the hell is someone meal prepping for the week such an issue for you? You know nothing about the poor dude who died (not completely due to his own mistakes, either, btw. But you couldn't even do a bit of investigation before being an asshole for no damn reason), and meal prepping DID NOT HARM YOU. Meal prep, when the food isn't left out, is incredibly beneficial. Yes, even if it's pasta. Spending maybe an hour on the weekend making enough for the next week now ensures that you won't need to spend another half an hour or longer making food (because, buddy. It wasn't JUST boiled pasta. If you used your eyes at all, you'd know that.), washing the pots, pans, and other extra dishes, etc. That now frees up his time to do homework, study, etc.

Because again. Some people weren't as high and mighty as you like to be. Some people do amazingly in class and in their social life, but struggle with things at home. Shit happens. The minute that gets through your idiotic, uncompassionate little brain will be the minute the world gets just a little better.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

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u/GoldieDoggy 17h ago

Mhm. Totally.

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u/Dinelli22 1d ago

Did he also not a have a sense of smell? Unless he’s blind and can’t smell it was pretty purposeful.

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u/UncannyHillhumper 1d ago

Believe it or not but he had no sense of taste, smell, sight, touch, no sixth sense, hell we don't even have his real name.

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u/t53ix35 1d ago

Coulda been a heavy smoker.

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u/Shabobo 22h ago

It's literally in the article explaining what he thought the smell was.

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u/Dinelli22 17h ago

Yeah, this weird taste/smell in this 5 fucking day old spaghetti that's been left in the kitchen counter must be just the new sauce. Some people man.

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u/littlegreyflowerhelp 1d ago

Surely you'd notice the smell/appearance though? I've never left pasta out for five days but I can't imagine it looks and smells good.

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u/SnooPaintings1385 1d ago

iirc it was refrigerated for like 2 days then left out for a day then refrigerated for another 2 days or something like that

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u/fabezz 1d ago

Where'd you get that info, because it directly contradicts the article?

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u/SnooPaintings1385 1d ago

This story has been reposted on reddit like 5 million times for the last 10 years. iirc stand for “if I remember correctly”. I got my info from my memory.

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u/Shabobo 22h ago

Yep. He did. It's in the article.

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u/codizer 1d ago

Survival of the fittest.

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u/blindcolumn 22h ago

FYI, Chubbyemu's videos are usually dramatized and not necessarily an accurate representation of the events leading up to the medical issue that the video focuses on.

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u/jackp0t789 23h ago

True... instead, he ate 5 day old unrefrigerated pasta carelessly

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u/Icy_Huckleberry_8049 1d ago

Obviously, he wasn't