Rice is a popular base and side dish for many meals, leaving us with plenty for leftovers. However, if you’re going to chow down on leftover rice, it’s important to make sure you’re reheating it safely to eat.

The culinary experts at Delish shared three easy-to-follow methods for making sure your rice is safe to eat and tastes like it was just made. These cooking methods can be used for different portion sizes of leftover rice. Delish even claimed that you’d “never know it was a day old”.

How to reheat rice properly

There are a few ways you can reheat rice, according to Delish. If you’re reheating rice to be eaten just by yourself, the best and most effective way is to use the microwave.

Delish instructed: “Add your rice to a microwave safe bowl, add a tablespoon of water, cover tightly and microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring between each until the rice is fluffy and warm again.”

When it comes to reheating multiple servings of rice, Delish advised that using the hob is the best way to go.

Simply add your rice to a saucepan, adding a tablespoon of water per cup of rice you’re reheating.

Cover the saucepan and reheat over a medium-low heat, stirring every 45 seconds until the rice is warm. Lastly, you can also use the oven.

Delish said: "This is the most surprising, but it’s also the best for heating rice for a crowd. Add your rice to an oven-safe baking dish, add a couple tablespoons of water, tablespoon for every cup of rice you’re reheating.

“Cover tightly and bake at 300℉ (approximately 150℃) for about 15 to 20 minutes… You’d never know it was a day old."

The Food Standards Agency has provided some clarity on some myths surrounding rice. It explained that rice may be eaten cold if it's cooled down quickly.

To make sure the rice is cool enough, place it in the fridge and eat within 24 hours. The FSA warned that it is possible to develop food poisoning from reheated rice.

However, it’s not actually the reheating of the rice that is the problem, it’s the way it’s stored before it’s reheated.

The rice should be kept in the fridge for no longer than a day before reheating. When cooking, make sure the rice is cooked and steaming all the way through.

Uncooked rice can contain spores of a bacterium called Bacillus cereus. This bacteria can cause food poisoning. The spores of Bacillus cereus can survive being cooked.

The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that the bacteria or toxins will make the rice unsafe to eat. You should also not reheat rice more than once.