Student suffered horrific death the day after eating meal-prepped pasta

Personally, I barely cooked a meal when I was at university, let alone meal-prepped.

Meal-prepping is usually a fantastic away to avoid cooking after a long day and is usually healthier than succumbing to that Friday night takeaway, but for one student from Belgium, it proved to be the cause of his death.

Now, takeaways are far from innocent when it comes to causing long-term health conditions, and the ones with one star food hygiene ratings are, in my experience, worth steering well clear of.

AJ was just 20 when he tragically passed away in 2008 at his parents house in Belgium, just hours after he consumed some leftover pasta.

AJ fell ill after eating leftover tomato pasta. (SimpleImages / Getty)

The student returned home from school and wolfed down the bowl of tomato-based pasta dish, a classic staple for any student. But unfortunately, the youngster had kept the food out at room temperature, rather than in the fridge, which allowed bacteria to grow. He had 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.

Meal prep is usually a great way to save money and time during the week (Getty Stock Images)

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 but 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.