Meal-prepping is something that can save a lot of time, effort and money, but it’s not typically something students think about doing.
This organised method helps you to use the food you have and reduce waste, and you can even bulk-cook food that’ll last for weeks.
This healthier alternative is much better than your cheeky takeaway after a night at the student’s union, but for one student from Belgium, it proved to be fatal.
Of course, any ultra-processed-food is far from innocent when it comes to your health in the long run, but it would have been a better alternative than the dish this poor student ended up eating.
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AJ was just 20 years old when he tragically passed away in 2008 at his parents’ home in Belgium.
Shockingly, it was just hours after he consumed some leftover pasta.
The incident began after the student returned home from school and ate a bowl of tomato-based pasta, that had been left out at room temperature, rather than in the fridge.
This fatal mistake allowed bacteria to grow ever since he prepped the pasta five days earlier.
He felt well enough to head out and play sports but when he returned home, the symptoms came quickly, and he was hit by a headache and stomach ache.
We've all felt that way after eating something dodgy, and running around is unlikely to have helped his stomach situation, but usually a few trips to the bathroom can solve the situation.
It seems as if AJ felt the same way as after a bout of diarrhoea and vomiting, he drank some water and headed to bed.
His parents were then shocked to find him dead in his bed the next morning, with investigators later ruling that he passed away at around 4am, roughly 10 hours after he consumed the pasta.
An autopsy later found that AJ had moderate centrilobular liver necrosis, which likely caused his organs to shut down.
The report said: "The spaghetti had been kept at room temperature for several days.
"This allowed Bacillus cereus to grow to very high concentrations and produced the high toxin concentration (14.8 μg/g) found in the pasta and which is likely responsible for the fatal outcome."
AJ's death occurred 17 years ago now and while tragic, his death serves as an important reminder of the dangers surrounding food, particularly when it comes to re-heating and storing it properly.
Fried rice syndrome, which refers to the food poisoning caused by failing to store carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes and pasta properly, can be deadly in some cases.
Bacillus cereus is a bacterium that grows on foods and can stay there even when cooked, so keeping it at room temperature proved to be the perfect environment for it to grow in, in AJ's case.
So, the next time you wake up hungover and spot those chips or even pizza leftover from the night before, you might be best reheating it or even just binning it, if you want to avoid consuming the potentially deadly bacteria which may have grown on your food while you slept.
Topics: Education, Food And Drink, Health, World News, Community
Britt Jones