#6 Potatoes

This may break a lot of hearts since potatoes are such a popular ingredient in a lot of dishes. But cooked potatoes can end up being more toxic than you could ever imagine, both after being left out at room temperature and when warmed up a second time the next day.

Potatoes are known to commonly contain a rare bacteria known as botulism, which thrives in warm temperatures as it accentuates its growth. And since a lot of us have the habit of leaving dishes out to cool before putting them in the fridge, potato dishes become the breeding ground for this specific bacteria.

However, you don’t have to throw away any leftover potatoes or stop leaving them to cool before you use them in other dishes. Just make sure you refrigerate them as soon as possible. You shouldn’t even leave them out for an hour to reach room temperature: just pack them up and put them in the fridge!

And if you end up having a lot of leftover potatoes, you should store them in containers and pop them in the fridge so they can cool faster. They will not spoil, so no need to worry about that.