After 20-Year-Old Student Dies In His Sleep, Doctors Say He Made Deadly Mistake With Leftover Pasta

Feb 26, 2019

Pasta is a popular meal for people around the globe. Not only is it inexpensive to make, but it’s easy to cook and delicious! You probably have fond memories of eating mac and cheese as a child, and that’s exactly why pasta is known as comfort food. Even as an adult, fettuccine pasta and a glass of wine is often a staple for many people.

Of course, everyone loves spaghetti, and many students or people on a budget often just eat buttered noodles and ramen noodles to get by.

But in one rare case that occurred in 2008, pasta caused the untimely death of one student.

AJ, a Belgian student, made the decision to eat expired pasta that ended up taking his life. Of course, many students eat foods past their prime. But now students are taking into account AJ’s case and questioning whether their leftover food is too old to eat or not.

AJ found pasta that one of his fellow students had made around five days prior. The problem is that the pasta was left out on the counter and wasn’t preserved correctly. Since he didn’t want it to go to waste, he decided to heat it up and eat the rest of it.

It seemed like a better solution than trying to find something else to eat or cooking his own food, so he indulged in the pasta.

However, things quickly went wrong after AJ had finished the pasta. He immediately began to feel gastrointestinal pain and returned back to his home.

He thought that he would feel better in the morning after a good nights rest, but sadly AJ never woke up from his slumber.

When the tests came back to see what the problem was and why he had passed away so suddenly, it came back that he had consumed a bacteria that is the cause of food poisoning.

This particular bacteria is called Bacillus cereus, and it survives even after food is heated up.

This type of bacteria kills off our body’s mitochondria, and can quickly deteriorate someone's health and even result in death.

To avoid these circumstances, avoid food that you know is too old and don’t eat anything that has been left to sit in room temperatures.

What do you think about this story? Will you have more caution when eating leftovers now? Tell us in the comments and make sure to pass on this story to raise awareness with your friends and loved ones.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation by your doctor. Your health is important to us!