Does 'Do Not Reheat' encourage food waste?

[Riley Blue]

Most supermarket chilled food has the advice, 'Do Not Reheat' on the pack. We always ignore this but it occurred to me that many people may not and throw away left-overs, unnecessarily increasing food waste. Being cynical, I think it's just a marketing ploy to encourage customers to re-purchase rather than re-heat - what say you?

[CoolHands]

Doesn’t it mean do not reheat once you’ve already reheated (cooked?) it again? Eg quiche which is cooked by manufacturer, then you can heat it at home and eat. If you then let it cool and reheat again, I thought bacteria was a problem?

[Riley Blue]

Precisely, it's ambiguous advice.

[Lemming Train]

Why can't your reheat it again a 2nd time? I would have thought a thorough nuking in the micro would swiftly see off any lurking bacteria if there was any. I have reheated many things a 2nd or 3rd time and haven't died so the 'advice' seems a bit scaremongery to me. :shrug:

[DocJock]

It doesn't cause anywhere near as much waste as "best before" and "use by" dates on stuff.

[Riley Blue]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You're probably right though as with the recent case of the student who died after eating left over pasta, it's incorrect storage that's a bigger problem than reheating.

[GTI16V]

I've reheated rice, chicken and various other foods that are supposed to kill you if the aforementioned is performed

I'm happy to report to report that despite engaging in this lethal food Russian roulette I'm still alive.

[davepoth]

DocJock said:

It doesn't cause anywhere near as much waste as "best before" and "use by" dates on stuff.

"Best before", certainly; it does just mean that it will not be quite as nice after that date. "Use by" is much more serious, and is used when the food could be dangerous afterwards.

[deeen]

GTI16V said:

I've reheated rice, chicken and various other foods that are supposed to kill you if the aforementioned is performed

I'm happy to report to report that despite engaging in this lethal food Russian roulette I'm still alive.

5 out of 6 games of Russian roulette result in survival. Still doesn't mean I'd play, though!

[Lemming Train]

davepoth said:

DocJock said:

It doesn't cause anywhere near as much waste as "best before" and "use by" dates on stuff.

"Best before", certainly; it does just mean that it will not be quite as nice after that date. "Use by" is much more serious, and is used when the food could be dangerous afterwards.

The 'smell' test usually answers any 'use by' queries. I find you can usually get away with up to 3 days after the 'use by' date on dodgy stuff like fresh chicken and pork so long as you give it a thorough cooking but any longer than that and the smell will tell you it's only fit for the bin.

[Hoofy]

deeen said:

GTI16V said:

I've reheated rice, chicken and various other foods that are supposed to kill you if the aforementioned is performed

I'm happy to report to report that despite engaging in this lethal food Russian roulette I'm still alive.

5 out of 6 games of Russian roulette result in survival. Still doesn't mean I'd play, though!

Having eaten countless reheated rice dinners since this was last discussed on PH about 5 years ago, I suspect this Russian revolver has about 10,232,599 chambers.

[captain_cynic]

Riley Blue said:

Most supermarket chilled food has the advice, 'Do Not Reheat' on the pack.

I've always believed that it's a liability issue to avoid law suits.

Hoofy said:

Having eaten countless reheated rice dinners since this was last discussed on PH about 5 years ago, I suspect this Russian revolver has about 10,232,599 chambers.

More chambers than that.

Rice is the largest source of food poisoning in the world, but this is because rice is often left to cool to room temperature and left there for some time before it is reheated. If you put rice straight into the fridge your chances of getting food poisoning from reheating it are almost nil.

Not a big issue here in the UK because we generally refrigerate food we intend to re-heat. I wouldn't trust re-heated rice in many Asian countries precisely because it could have been left out.

[matrignano]

I thought you are meant to let food cool down after cooking/reheating, before placing in the fridge?
Or have I been doing it wrong?

[21TonyK]

matrignano said:

I thought you are meant to let food cool down after cooking/reheating, before placing in the fridge?
Or have I been doing it wrong?

No, thats right, theory being something hot will raise the internal temperature of the fridge albeit only until the fridge works to bring it back down. Depends what it is, how much and what else is in the fridge as the the dangers.

General rule though, don;t put hot in a fridge, let it cool first.

[Marlin45]

The food equivalent of 'dry clean only'.

[geeks]

21TonyK said:

matrignano said:

I thought you are meant to let food cool down after cooking/reheating, before placing in the fridge?
Or have I been doing it wrong?

No, thats right, theory being something hot will raise the internal temperature of the fridge albeit only until the fridge works to bring it back down. Depends what it is, how much and what else is in the fridge as the the dangers.

General rule though, don;t put hot in a fridge, let it cool first.

Nah stuff can go straight into the fridge just fine, normally the reason they say not to is the shelves in fridges tend to be glass so will break! A tub of pasta is unlikely to raise the internal temp of a fridge, a large saucepan of curry might see a small increase but most modern fridges are more than man enough to sort that problem out. If you leave something to cool before putting it into the fridge you are actually increasing the risk of nasties in your food, only marginally I grant you but it is a thing none the less. Within reason though leaving something a couple of hours before stacking it into the fridge is fine.

Reheating stuff is a minefield of advice, the best rule is to ensure that anything reheated (either for the first of second time) should be heated to a temperature approaching nuclear fusion and you should be ok. Rice as many have pointed out is one of the most dangerous to reheat as many people don't reheat it well enough to kill off any bacteria in there, if you dont burn yourself removing reheated rice from the microwave, it isnt hot enough

[dundarach]

I tend to behave like an adult...

If it smells bad, it probably is.

If it's moldy and I can cut that part off i do.

Otherwise, eat up!

46, 2 children, never had food poisoning.

[Dogwatch]

Lemming Train said:

Why can't your reheat it again a 2nd time? I would have thought a thorough nuking in the micro would swiftly see off any lurking bacteria if there was any. I have reheated many things a 2nd or 3rd time and haven't died so the 'advice' seems a bit scaremongery to me. :shrug:

Yes, reheating will kill off bacteria but if the little sods have been busy producing toxins (i.e. Their poo) in sufficient quantities then no amount of heating will deal with that - and neither will your guts!

[21TonyK]

geeks said:

21TonyK said:

matrignano said:

I thought you are meant to let food cool down after cooking/reheating, before placing in the fridge?
Or have I been doing it wrong?

No, thats right, theory being something hot will raise the internal temperature of the fridge albeit only until the fridge works to bring it back down. Depends what it is, how much and what else is in the fridge as the the dangers.

General rule though, don;t put hot in a fridge, let it cool first.

Nah stuff can go straight into the fridge just fine, normally the reason they say not to is the shelves in fridges tend to be glass so will break! A tub of pasta is unlikely to raise the internal temp of a fridge, a large saucepan of curry might see a small increase but most modern fridges are more than man enough to sort that problem out. If you leave something to cool before putting it into the fridge you are actually increasing the risk of nasties in your food, only marginally I grant you but it is a thing none the less. Within reason though leaving something a couple of hours before stacking it into the fridge is fine.

Reheating stuff is a minefield of advice, the best rule is to ensure that anything reheated (either for the first of second time) should be heated to a temperature approaching nuclear fusion and you should be ok. Rice as many have pointed out is one of the most dangerous to reheat as many people don't reheat it well enough to kill off any bacteria in there, if you dont burn yourself removing reheated rice from the microwave, it isnt hot enough

I could spend the time picking this apart but TBH it's easier just to say "wrong".

Matrignano, do as you are doing, ideally cool within 90 minutes then into the fridge. If it helps spread food out on a cold plate or whatever.

[captain_cynic]

21TonyK said:

I could spend the time picking this apart but TBH it's easier just to say "wrong".

Matrignano, do as you are doing, ideally cool within 90 minutes then into the fridge. If it helps spread food out on a cold plate or whatever.

I could spend the time telling you how many ways you are wrong, but I'll just say you're incredibly wrong.

https://www.thekitchn.com/is-it-ok-to-put-warm-lef...

You really DON'T want to leave food at temperatures where bacteria can grow, between 60° and 5°C, the last thing you want is to leave it at those at room temperature for hours where bacteria grows the fastest.

You want to cool leftovers as fast as possible.