Leftover rice in the rice cooker

Is it okay if there is leftover rice that has been cooked in the rice cooker, to leave the rice in for the following days, until it gets eaten up? I know ideally we should just make how much we plan to eat, but sometimes schedules change, and either we don't need the rice (such as a last minute plan to eat out) or family members are late to come home and end up not eating at home.

Don't leave the rice sitting in the pot. Put the leftovers in a closed container or a bowl (cling wrap it) and put it in the fridge.

Although I prefer the fridge, they usually say it's tastier to freeze. You can also make yaki-onigiri to fridge or freeze.

Either way, if you leave it in room temprature, it will easily rot and cause food poisoning in this climate. On the other hand, if you keep it heated using the "ho-on jar" mode, it will consume your electricity bills and mother earth's energy only to make the rice less and less tasty.

Actually, it's more common to cook a little bit more than you need for the meal, so that you can preserve the leftovers for another day.

The rainy season (tsuyu) is a very tricky time. Be sure you take good care of all your leftovers, not only rice!

What is yaki-onigiri? (I know what onigiri is.)

Don't ever let it sit for more than a few hours, particularly in the warmer months. As soon as the meal is over, leftover should be cooled (outside the pot), cling film-wrapped or placed in a tupperware, and kept in the fridge if you think you'll eat it on the following day, or in the freezer if you intend to eat it later than that.

"Yaki-onigiri" is "onigiri" grilled (usually) with a bit of soy sauce :)

As explained, if you grill an ordinary onigiri in an oven toaster for a few minutes, that's already yaki-onigiri. "Yaki" means "grilled."

Actually, make ordinary onigiri (with or without salt, but without the nori seaweed wrap) and put it in the fridge. The rice may get hard, but by heating it on a grill, it will get soft in the inside while the surface ends up hot and crunchy. If you hadn't used salt on it, you can put a layer of soy sauce just before you grill it.

Umeboshi is also a traditional food that is supposed to avoid food poisening. In summer, my grandmother used to make yaki-onigiri with umeboshi in it. Great for snacks and light meals!

I reread my original question, and saw that I omitted something I meant to include in that question. I am well aware that leaving food at room temperature esp. in the warmer months can lead to food poisoning. So what I had meant to ask was, if I left the rice in the rice cooker WITH THE WARMING BUTTON ON, would that be okay for a day or two? Does the warming button keep it hot enough to discourage bacteria from growing? I ask, knowing all those things that Uco mentioned, like not being energy efficient, etc.

I ask because of the many times when I am so busy and forget to refrigerate it. Then to have to throw out whole pots of rice seems wasteful.

No, the warm button keeps it just warm enough for eating. So if you know a family member is coming home a couple of hours later you can use it, but nothing beyond that.

Generally speaking, the temperature of rice cooker for "warm" function is 60-70c. While it does not allow bacterias to grow, the longer you keep the rice in the cooker, the less tasty the rice becomes because keeping rice at 60-70c makes it drier and sometimes the colour turns to yellow-ish.
Though it depends on the cooker, quality (taste-wise) rice starts go bad after 3 hours. Max keeping time should be 24 hours, even though after that the rice is still edible without food poisoning.

I ask because of the many times when I am so busy and forget to refrigerate it. Then to have to throw out whole pots of rice seems wasteful.

I understand what you are talking about. I'm no doctor, but my answer is, no, you don't have to throw it away just because you left it in the warmer for a couple of days in the rainy season.

I would indeed avoid feeding it to babies or those with delicate digestion problems, but if it were up to me, I would eat it myself as long as I don't mind the terrible taste and brown-ish color. And of course, I always have the option to stirr-fry it with lots of other goodies to make the old rice taste better.

Actually, you can usually judge if the cooked rice is edible or not by its smell. You will notice something like the smell of old damp cloth if the rice is rotten. You will also notice that rotten rice is sticky enough to show thread-y things just as fresh natto does. If you notice a pink color, that can be dangerous mold.

Note that takikomi-gohan (rice cooked together with vegetables or meat and seasonings) is a whole different story. They tend to become un-edible sooner.

Hope I have answered your question.

Thanks for all your answers, that helps!

Sounds a little gross to me. Probably not bad for you or anything, but not very sanitary either.

It's not bad for you as modern rice cookers are designed to heat it enough to keep rice good for a certain amount of time, days even after the initial cooking. Of course the quality gets worse as it ages, but it shouldn't make you sick. I'm not saying to leave it in there for days, but at least you can move it to the refrigerator the next day if you forget.

Thanks! Seems like most of you think it won't cause food poisoning. The quality does get worse, harder and drier too. But maybe it can be used for fried rice, okayu, or zosui.

I usually fry mine once its been in there a little too long and starts to yellow. The rice is usually fine, but I'd rather not eat it as shirogohan anymore at that point. You might be able to use it for zosui too, and maybe okayu if it's not too far gone.