If mice touched the edges of a bag of rice, is it safe to eat (cooked)? Why or why not?

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They also chewed through said bag of rice, but only touched a small part of the surface of the inside.
To be clear, the bag of rice is raw rice.

In: Biology

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Maybe if you take stuff from a part of the bag that hasn’t been touched. I don’t fuck around with rodents and food but if you have to you have to

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you’re eating the rice raw than I’d worry. But if cooking, I wouldn’t worry about it. Nothing survives 15 mins of boiling. Also, maybe get rid of mice?

Anonymous 0 Comments

if you cook rice it will certainly kill any viruses or bacteria on it. there are few exotic organisms that survive that process but they dont usually live on rice. its still a gross thought though. i would throw it out on that alone because i hate rodents.. and rice..

Anonymous 0 Comments

Anything they touched can be contaminated- I would not use at all. Also – it is important to mask up when cleaning areas of mouse infestation – humans can get hantavirus from contact with mouse urine and feces, including if you breathe in air that has virus particles in it. [more info](https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html)

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes. Ready to be disgusted? Quite a bit of the food we eat already has mouse crap in it. Rice comes out of a field, so it’s not exactly hermetically sealed to begin with. After that it was probably kept in a big warehouse, in a burlap sack. Your house mouse probably isn’t the first animal to share your next meal.
[https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/health/insect-rodent-filth-in-food-wellness/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/health/insect-rodent-filth-in-food-wellness/index.html)

mice primarily carry salmonella which is killed by cooking something at 150 degrees for 10 minutes or so. A rice cooker gets up to 200 degrees usually, so even in a rice cooker, you’re probably ok.

I’m not any kind of food scientist – just a mom who knows how much it hurts to waste food when you’re struggling – so take my advice with a grain of salt… pun intended.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Bad news. There are FDA defined levels of mice poop and insect parts for grains. Not to say that your food is not clean. First world country and in modern history, it’s the cleanest it has ever been. But it’s not perfect. Cook your food… And a little mouse poop actually won’t hurt you

Anonymous 0 Comments

Just cook And eat it. It’s fine. Field mice generally aren’t the too bad with disease unless they bite you. Rice is a pretty dry place so any bacteria there is probably dead anyway after a day. Still cook it to be safe though as that makes it 100% they are dead