Investigators now say that the student ate the pasta thinking it had been refrigerated for the whole five days - and while he noticed that it smelt off, he thought it was due to a new brand of pasta sauce he’d used.
Said one commentator: ‘It’s sad, but he clearly didn’t realise what had happened until it was too late.’
As previously reported, the student started having severe abdominal pain just half an hour after consuming the meal - before falling asleep in bed after several hours of extreme vomiting. Authorities say he never woke up, dying in his sleep from the food poisoning.
When the National Reference Laboratory for Food-borne Outbreaks tested the pasta and tomato sauce that AJ consumed, they found that the toxins from the bacteria were so high that they caused his liver to fail - causing his death.
But in a strange twist, it was revealed that the deathly bacteria was only found in the pasta - not the sauce - defying many people’s belief that cooked pasta cannot spoil easily.
The shocking death has prompted authorities to remind people of the dangers of refrigerating food and consuming leftovers within a couple of days.
'Many people eat pasta, or any other form of noodles, that are leftover for a day or two and they're fine,' said leading practitioner Dr Bernard. 'But be careful of food left out for more than a few hours. If the food smells funny, it's always better to be safe than sorry.'
