A Belgian student died after eating a plate of pasta that had been left on his kitchen bench for five days.

The 20-year-old from Brussels became seriously ill 30 minutes after eating the reheated the dish of spaghetti and tomato sauce.

After two bouts of diarrhoea, the student identified as AJ, went to bed to try and sleep the sickness off, only to be found dead at 11am by his devastated parents in 2008.

Autopsies revealed the student suffered liver failure, the result of extreme food poisoning caused by a bacteria called Bacillus Cereus.

Details of the shocking death emerged again after it was highlighted by a renowned plant-based physician Dr Neal Barnard on his YouTube channel.

While the medical report for AJ’s death states “he did not receive any medication and drank only water,” Dr Barnard believes the student treated his symptoms with “stomach medicine”.

Camera Icon Death by pasta: The 20-year-old suffered liver failure from a plate of spaghetti containing a bacteria called Bacillus Cereus. Credit: Pixabay

“The food poisoning that results from it is usually self-limiting, meaning one can recover from it through intrinsic bodily functions. But for AJ a second agent was found,” Professor Bernard said in the video.

“Additional lab methods were used to deflect, extract, isolate and purify the toxin from Bacillus Cereus cultures revealing a protein known as Cereulide, which points us to the final answer of AJ’s case.

“The final link in this case comes not from the pasta but the stomach medicine that AJ drank after initially vomiting.”

Professor Barnard claims AJ’s death was not a typical food poising case, and that liver failure was triggered in part by an overdose of stomach medication.

The video has been viewed two million times and attracted more than 16,000 comments since it was uploaded in January 21.

“(Be right back), gonna go throw out everything in my fridge real quick,” one viewer said.

Another wrote: “I was eating some suspect leftover food while watching another medical video on YouTube, then this video auto-played.”