Is it safe to reheat rice?

Yes, with one non-negotiable: the risk is in the storing, not the reheating. The UK's Food Standards Agency says you can get food poisoning from eating reheated rice, but it is not the reheating that causes the problem; it is the way the rice was stored beforehand. The culprit is Bacillus cereus, a bacterium whose spores survive cooking and then multiply in cooked rice sitting warm at room temperature, producing toxins that reheating does not destroy. The FSA's rules are specific: chill leftover rice as quickly as possible, ideally within one hour, and dividing it into smaller portions speeds the cooling; keep it in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating; never leave rice sitting in the rice cooker or steamer on keep-warm for hours; do not reheat rice more than once; and when you do reheat, make sure it is steaming hot all the way through. Cold rice is fine too, if it was cooled fast and eaten within 24 hours. The pattern behind most rice poisoning stories is the same: rice left out on the counter or in a warm cooker for hours, then reheated. Break that pattern at the chilling step and leftover rice is a convenience, not a gamble.