There are few things better than a cold slice of pizza for breakfast. But as delicious as scarfing down cold pizza is, there's also a risk of food poisoning if you aren't careful.

Food poisoning is caused by eating food that has become contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, fungi or viruses.

Although most people know that food poisoning can be caused by poorly cooked foods or risky food preparation habits, improperly stored leftovers are also a key cause. It's therefore extremely important you take care when storing leftovers to avoid harming your health.

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Here's my advice as a microbiologist for staying safe when eating your favourite cold leftovers.

Leftover pizza

You can get food poisoning from cooked pizza in a number of ways. Whether that's because some of the ingredients are raw, undercooked or spoiled, or if the pizza has touched a surface with germs on it (including being handled by someone who hasn't washed their hands).

Surprisingly, the dried herbs and spices that people often sprinkle on their pizzas (such as basil, pepper and oregano) can also be susceptible to microbial contamination.

This contamination can occur during the harvesting and production phases, or due to improper storage by consumers. Some of the foodborne pathogens that can potentially survive on dried herbs include bacteria that can cause food poisoning, including Salmonella, Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens.

Even if...