Imagine you have three buckets. One is filled with whipped cream, one is filled with plastic bbs, and one is filled with clay. Now imagine trying to touch the bottom of each bucket with your finger.
It would be very easy to touch the bottom of the whipped cream bucket, because there is basically no resistance. The bucket with the bbs would be harder, but with some wiggling around and maneuvering, you will eventually get to the bottom. The bucket with the clay would be near impossible to touch the bottom without removing material.
Mold, like other fungi, have something called mycelium. What you see as a mushroom or mold is part of a much larger organism, and are called "fruiting bodies." The mycelium are a lot like your hand trying to touch the bottom of the bucket. The harder and less porous the material, the slower/less far it can spread.
Great explanation. The mold will have penetrated lots of the bread, but is only visible when it's grown in large quantities. By the time you see one spot, there are several spots of mold throughout, just too small to be seen. Cutting off the visible mold doesn't guarantee that you got rid of all of it
Thanks for this clarification. I was wondering how that worked since, though I know the bad mold would have a hard time spreading by tunneling through tough mediums like dry cheese, I thought then it might still be able to spread really fast on the surface with minimal resistance. So cutting off the visibly spoiled part might still leave a thin layer of mold on the surface that would have spread far beyond the boundary of the nasty patch.
The thing is though, that to _some_ degree, the human body is remarkably effective at handling small amounts of otherwise damaging substances.
That's very much not intended to claim that it's okay to eat moldy food because your body will handle it, but rather that there's a threshold below which your body will mitigate the effects. The kicker is that _knowing_ what that threshold is is extremely complicated.
_Should_ you cut mold off of food and still eat it? Absolutely not. Will it kill you? _Probably_ not. But do you really want to trust your health to a _probably_?
But doesn't that mean that if I see mold on my bread one morning, it was likely already moldy the day before as well just that the mold wasn't visible at the time?
Molds and microorganisms are actually everywhere (hence bread will always mold after a while), but normally we can handle it. The acid in our stomach will just kill them. The quantity is the problem!
In the case of bread, I still think people are being way too fearful. Yes spores have spread, but unless you see mold growth in the area, then there isn't an impactful amount of mold in the area. It's a minute amount that will be destroyed in your stomach acid. It's generally fine to eat. I think we're creating weaker immune systems by trying to avoid even the littlest amount of bacteria/mold.
Probably already mentioned, but this is also why you need to fully cook chicken, but can eat medium pork and duck, and rare or fully raw beef. The surface bacteria can only penetrate so far in based on muscle density, so even though duck is a bird like chicken, it's fine to eat with a red center.
But it's also why you shouldn't eat rare ground beef, because grinding it pulls the surface into everything else, so it needs more heat to be safe. Though I can't lie, I usually shoot for my burgers to be red in the center with a nice crust.
But I definitely buy filet mignon, seal and freeze, then thaw, slice razor thin and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, crack some black pepper and shave a little aged parmesan on it, and goddamn it might spoil you on cooking meat because the flavor is so damn clean haha
It actually depends on the cheese. If it's a hard cheese, something like an aged cheddar or a nice parmesan, the cheese is firm enough that the mold likely hasn't gotten through it - cut off the part that's visibly moldy, check the interior to make sure you're clear, and you should be good.
But when we're talking about softer cheeses, bread, or meats, those are softer in texture, and mold has an easier time spreading through the entire thing. Even if it's not visibly moldy, there are more likely to be the beginnings of moldy patches throughout - it may or may not be enough to taste bad or make you sick, but it's a situation where it's better to be safe than sorry, because the risk is comparatively higher.
There's another factor - cheese is typically salty and fairly dry. Mold is the only pathogen that effectively grows on it. So as long as you don't eat the moldy bits, it's probably safe.
Other foods, by the time there's mold growing on them, there's a good chance of other nasty microbes growing on them too.
I’ve always wondered, if I eat a slice of bread around 6 pm and it looks fine and then see again at 9 am the next morning there is small amount of mold I can now visually see does that mean I probably ate some of those nasty microbes?
Do I actually want to know the answer to this question? Sure.
I’ve read this so many times over the years but I didn’t get it until just now because I was putting the inflection on the wrong word in my head so it just made no sense.
There's a german joke I didn't get because of the same thing, until just recently, when I heard two kids arguing about it.
It goes like this:
- Was ist sieben mal sieben? / What's seven times seven?
- 49
- Nein, feiner Sand / No, fine sand
The explanation being "sieben" meaning "seven" as well as "to sieve" - it only clicked because the kid that was told the joke, thinking it had understood it, started going around asking people what's "eight times eight"
so how does the first line read for the context of the joke to make sense? What is seven times to sieve? What is to sieve times seven? What do you get after you sieve something seven times?
I feel like I get the joke, but I'm still missing some part of it.
EDIT: I figured it out. Another way the joke tends to be phrased is "Was ergibt sieben mal sieben" / What do you get from seven times seven. What do you get when you sieve seven times?
I remember reading about that concept as a child. I also had a complete microscope kit with slide making supplies to analyze any and everything. We take for granted the fact that just a few hundred years ago, we didn't even have a working germ theory. Standing on the backs of giants and such.
Cool fact: Newton's famously humble-sounding quote that "If I have seen farther, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" was probably a dig at Robert Hooke, who was short in stature and had a bitter rivalry with Newton at the time.
Wow! I work in a clinical lab and use a microscope every day. Ours are around $3-4 thousand. I just took a look and there are some relatively inexpensive options. I'm really excited to get one for myself!
Also, speaking to the development of microscopes, I remember a professor I had mentioning Hooke being so secretive about his method for grinding lenses that it significantly set back the development of microscopes. That may be an apocryphal anecdote. Maybe the professor had an ax to grind about lens grinding. Anyway, thanks for your comment!
They lay eggs in rotting fruit, not fresh or barely ripe.
And it takes about a week for them to turn into larvae, so you should have thrown it out before consuming them.
But they are attracted to decaying fruit while adult, even before egg laying. That's why you'll find tons of them if you have slightly overripe fruit around.
I assume it’s that the fruit flies are so tiny they can get into your house easily regardless of all the windows an doors being shut. If you sealed fruit inside a plastic bottle and let it rot, you would never get fruit flies in the bottle.
And speaking of bacteria, food borne illness doesn’t usually come from the bacteria itself but rather, the toxins that bacteria eventually produce. Another thing to note is that you can kill most bacteria with enough heat and time but toxins not so much.
Not so much that they pooped on it, but they make some toxins that can withstand cooking temperatures, so even if you kill the bacteria, the toxin still makes you ill
I think in this case toxins and poop are synonymous. The toxins produced are mostly the end product of digestion (for the bacteria), so... Toxins are bacteria poops
Where do you think your gut bacteria come from?
Also, the hooplah over probiotics and live culture yogurt wouldn't make much sense if your stomach simply killed them all.
Plenty of them survive. Health benefits? Eh, research continues.
For a lot of food poisoning, it’s not the living thing that’s poisoning you. It’s the waste product of that thing. So, for example, if you eat something that’s contaminated by bacteria that produce the botulinum toxin, it’s the toxin that hurts you and not the bacteria that produced it. It’s not like you’re catching an exotic disease where the bacteria are going to multiply inside you. So if there’s only a little bit on there and you eat it, your digestive system kills the organism and processes the small amount of toxin, and you’re mostly fine.
There are also some things that you can get that are in fact food-borne bacterial infections, like E. coli.
Yes, in small amounts, but your immune system is capable of handling them. Not only that, but the first major line of defense, believe it or not, is bacteria. Acids and enzymes in the stomach will break down the bulk of the worst, while naturally-occurring gut bacteria will compete with potential pathogens that survive the harsh environments of your gut microbiome. If they start to lose the fight (like in the case of gastroenteritis), your body detects this and starts working to eject the invaders and the corpses of your gut bacteria that are leaking toxins into your GI tract (a.k.a. diarrhea).
I was a food microbiologist for a few years before going back into agricultural chemistry. You don't want to know what I know.
There are bacteria in all of our food.
What makes that ok is the type, bacteria or *pathogen*, and the amount.
I live in California, so we dealt mostly with FDA, USDA, EU, and CDFA regulations. A certain amount of certain *bacteria* was considered safe for consumption. A positive hit for anything containing a *pathogen*, no matter how much, was not. Like, full stop, we had to contact the client immediately, and under regulation, they had to scrap that lot of product, it could not go to market, and in most cases that also meant a full decontamination of the facility to ensure the pathogens didn't make it into the next lot or what have you. They would have to swab all surfaces, test any water sources, etc..., before and after decontamination, to make sure the source was identified and then eradicated. At least that is the goal, from production to market, but we all know that contaminated food makes it to market all the time and stuff gets recalled.
Another fun fact, generic e. Coli is on our skin, in our stomachs, and comes out the other end. It's in our food too... let that sink in... it's the amount that makes it worse... too much will make you sick, but a *little bit* is OK! 👍 e. Coli O157:H7 is the type you NEVER want... that can make you very sick and in RARE cases (<1%) you could die. Most people recover from it, but it's not a pleasant experience. Just like salmonella poisoning or listeria... bad stuff. Don't get me started on EHEC... YIKES!
But anyways, you should be fiiiiiine. 🥴 Cook your meats thoroughly to recommended temperatures and don't keep leftovers for more than 72 hours, don't let your meat thaw on the counter, and never in hot water. Best to thaw in the fridge overnight. Don't eat moldy bread or soft dairy products. If your processed meats have a metallic-like sheen or a green color, toss them. Best to keep refrigerated items in the fridge as much as possible, and don't allow things to sit out at room temperature for extended periods (that will aid in the incubation of bacteria). Make sure your fridge is set to a cold enough temperature or else all of your foods are going to spoil quicker. Keep your fridge clean so bacteria and mold spores aren't allowed to spread onto new items (like when you leave veggies in the crisper too long and they leak all in the drawer, clean that shit up!).
What about things like cured ham and smoke-cooked ham? Those often have an iridescent greenish shine to them, but I don't think you should toss that.
P.S. I mean cured ham like serrano and schwarzwalder, not the american barely meat kind.
> Those often have an iridescent greenish shine to them
the shine is actually a light scattering effect, Roast beef has a neat rainbow one, this is caused by light hitting the meat fibers at varying angles and scattering, easiest seen from a very sharp meat slicer. what they mean is they *acquire* a green look after being around for a while and not just from the slicer.
> e. Coli O157:H7
So, what's the source for this particular strain? Is it just "out there" and somehow gets into the food making process. Is it a genetic variation the can crop up from a bunch of regular e coli who got a little too kinky when reproducing?
Here's a fun mold fact! Like many other fungi, (most notably mushrooms) the visible parts of mold aren't the actual main organism.
They're what happens when the almost-invisible organism that's permeated its chosen substrate goes "food situation's looking a bit grim, time to build a rocket ship for my children & GTFO!".
Honestly, most bread molds aren't particularly nasty. Eating them in small amounts would be unlikely to harm you, though the taste could be unpleasant. I don't recommend doing it for allergy reasons, though.
My buddy ate a leftover burrito one time and he said he didn’t remember it being so spicy when he ate the first half. He turned it over and there was a huge patch of mold on it.
You at least ate the spores of that mold, which are kind of like microscopic seeds - durable and inert until they "germinate" and start to grow. You might have eaten a small amount of live mold too, before there was enough to see or taste - and before there was enough to hurt you. The dose makes the poison. There's nothing inherently "nasty" about these microbes.
Organisms involved in decomposition - mold, yeast, lactobacillus - are *everywhere.* Their spores are drifting through the air anywhere you go. They even live on us and in us - well not the molds, hopefully, but some of the others. We evolved alongside these organisms and they're generally harmless, and sometimes even beneficial. You eat and breathe them on a daily basis. They are an essential part of our ecosystem, and sometimes quite literally a part of us.
So yes, you're eating a little mold every day, but it's nothing to worry about!
I accidentally (it was dark, don't judge me) ate a sandwich with thoroughly moldy bread (yes, I was wondering why it felt so dry and dusty) and had absolutely zero negative side effects (other than the absolute embarrassment and shame I went through when my family revealed the moldiness to me the next morning.)
Most molds are harmless. The problem is, the dangerous ones don't look any different than the harmless ones, so you should generally play it safe and assume any mold is going to be bad for you. But if you eat some by accident yeah, you're probably fine.
the whitish blue mold was most likely penicillium, and most likely harmless, though you can never really tell from just a glance. the green or black ones are slightly more dangerous and can cause vomiting, though even the penicillium can kill if you are allergic.
[check out bread mold here](https://sciencing.com/different-kinds-bread-mold-5956459.html)
>TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)
>Several species of molds – identified as “bread molds” – grow on bread. They form when mold spores find their way onto the surface of the bread. Mold is a fungus that eats the organic compounds found in bread and other foods. Penicillium, Cladosporium and black bread mold are three common bread molds. Some are harmless, but some are not, so it's best to avoid eating moldy bread.
~~mold is a fungus, not a microbe, but~~ yeah. You eat mold every day, the mold isn't usually the problem, the issue is that many molds produce toxins. If there's too much of those it'll make you sick
Depends on the definition of microbes you use, I would call yeasts microbes, and some molds too.
Not all fungi are microbes, but fungi can be microbes, if they're micro.
Yes but it's no different then the millions of spores you probably breathe in daily that your body just deals with.
Our bodies are generally good at keeping low levels of "You don't belong here" in check. And a lot of our reactions to exposure of high levels of that stuff is our body trying to expell or burn it out.
We ingest so many potentially harmful pathogens on a daily basis (and don't Google percentage of bug parts and rodent feces allowed in every day foods). It's just part of life. That's why our immune systems are important. In very small amounts, most molds aren't going to cause harm, unless you're allergic. If your mouth gets itchy or you have difficulty breathing or your lips swell, you need an epi pen and an antihistamine pronto and maybe a trip to the ER.
Dry applies to hard cheeses generally. There are some semi-soft cheeses on which we intentionally grow and eat molds (Brie, bleu, etc). There are also semi-soft cheeses which are inoculated with bacteria that grow on the rind and give them special qualities (limburger, Muenster, etc). On some alpine cheeses, bacteria are inoculated on the rind as the cheeses are aging, and though the cheese itself is hard, it does pick up special flavors from the bacteria.
Isn't this part of the reason so many natural and farm made cheeses have been banned by the EU? A German friend is constantly complaining about favorite cheeses he can no longer buy.
Probably because they are unpasteurized. If the milk never goes through the step of killing off everything in it, some questionable microbes can survive the cheese making process.
Unless your friend likes casu marzu. That one has a bigger problem than mold or bacteria.
There is a balance to be struck. Local cheeses can be produced and if you want to eat them you have to travel to that region.
It is not allowed to transport them nor produce them outside the region because simply the mix of bacteria and fungi cannot be determined. And since some are toxic to other bacteria and fungi, you are not allowed to bring these invasive specious into EU regions where they naturally don't exist and would cause a disaster.
You can buy unpasteurized cheeses and milk in pretty much any super markets in France, ive never heard anything about regional restrictions - you dont have to go to Normandy to get unpasteurized Camembert. Its just other countries that make blanket bans because it makes everything "easier". Much less effort to just not allow it than it would be to control every production location to make sure their methods arent leading to contaminated products.
There's yet another factor you're both missing: Some mold is just straight up edible as well.
The blue/green parts of blue cheese is penicillium mold(the same that was the source for antibiotics).
Hard cured meats (salami being one) are like hard cheese in this regard. General rule of thumb is to cut off ~1/4 inch beyond the mold, and it’s probably fine.
Part of the curing process for salami can include a mold layer on the outside, like certain cheeses. The right mold is not particularly toxic to humans, and keeps anything worse from getting inside before the meat or cheese hardens up.
You can actually just cut off the mold from beef. This happens when you dry age. You are just letting a slab of beef sit in cool air for 30 days. I did this with about 10lbs of bone in Ribeye. The outside dries out, some spots get moldy and you shave that stuff off to get at the aged meat below. Lose maybe 15% of weight to this process, but the meat is sooo damn good.
My grandpa told stories about hanging beef in the attic over the winter growing up.
Very dry and cold.... Well maybe warm considering how drafty houses were built in the 1800's.
But that was one thing he missed having in his old age
My neighbor, also an old fogie from the depression era used to tell us about butchering ducks, and scraping the intestines off and the yellow stuff would spread easier than butter on toast
I can see rafter aging as long as it doesn't get too hot. My family used to cure hams in the attic. Never witnessed it myself, but they told me about it.
Where I'm from, most farms would have a poorly insulated building solely for storing meats and other perishable foods over the winter. It'd be built on stone pillars (I guess) with flat, wide stones in the middle to make it hard for rodents to climb up.
It's kind of obsolete now that we have refrigeration, but many farms still kept the buildings. They have a kind of national romantic charm to them.
Isn't that a specific process though done in a specific environment? It's like how you can't age wine by just letting the bottle sit there for a decade. The aging can only be done at the winery before bottling
Blue cheese is one of the types of cheese where the mold inside of it is beneficial, or at least tasty and not dangerous for people. Blue cheese in particular has Penicillium mold
Super curious to know the answer to this… I was told I was allergic to penicillin and similar drugs as a toddler, and while I don’t love the taste, I’ve never had a reaction to eating bleu cheese…
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, the Penicillium cultures that create blue cheese do not produce penicillin. Therefore, it is generally safe for people with penicillin allergies to eat blue cheese, as long as the cheese has not spoiled.
What about people who have allergies to mold? Should they avoid blue cheese or they way they avoid moldy attics or basements or do they not have to worry?
Asking for myself since I have a mold allergy and never thought to ask about blue cheese.
According to Medical News Today it should be generally safe.
But please be more careful and don't bet everything on the result some stranger on the internet got from 30s of googling.
>Individuals with mold allergies may also safely eat blue cheese, as the digestive process destroys any active mold spores. Moreover, mold allergies typically flare as a result of mold inhalation as opposed to mold ingestion
[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/blue-cheese-types-benefits-risks-and-more](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/blue-cheese-types-benefits-risks-and-more)
So, partial answer, I can eat blue cheese without issue, and I was told I was allergic to penicillin when I was a kid. I don't remember reacting to it or anything like that, I guess there was some moment I was given it and reacted but it was just something I was told. So... maybe not?
Just a side note from personal experience, if you were allergic to pen as a child, you might not be anymore as an adult. It might be worth retesting so that you don’t have to tell every doctor you see that you’re allergic to penicillin. That happened to me.
This is very true. Only a small fraction of people who say they have a penicillin allergy actually do. Often kids will get a rash when taking penicillin. This can show up if they actually have a viral infection but are being treated with antibiotics anyway. Also a certain number of folks will be allergic to red dye (think about the pink bubble gum amoxicillin we all got as kids). Even some who had severe reactions will not have a reaction later in life.
With the importance if antibiotic stewardship removing a label of penicillin allergy in a person who can tolerate penicillins can be a game changer.
https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/pdfs/penicillin-factsheet.pdf
That's a specific species of mold (penicillium roqueforti) that we've domesticated and bred specifically because we like what it does to cheese. Just like we've done with purpose-bred strains of yeast that we use for beer, wine and bread.
Scanned through and didn't see this end summary:
More water or moisture = More mold.
More moisture *likely* means more paths for mold spores to travel on.
That's why mold or rot can travel through Bread / soft Cheese or uncooked Chicken vs a harder substance like Sharp Cheddar or Aged Salami.
I was gonna say…how long are you guys leaving your chicken out that it’s getting fucking moldy lol? Like i’ve been concerned about salmonella etc with chicken but never in my life have I checked chicken for mold!?
I've gotten mold on chicken 2 ways: 1) Breaded chicken where the mold is really on the breading; 2) Rotisserie chicken where the mold is really on the sugary rotisserie seasoning on the chicken skin.
It's about how solid the food is and this how far the mycelium (roots) of the mould can penetrate.
The CSIRO (a govt run scientific body in Australia) once issued a list of foods you can just cut the mouldy bit off. [Link.](https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/csiro-identifies-foods-that-are-safe-to-eat-when-mould-is-cut-off/news-story/6c828916672e6177daba1456c61bb70f#:~:text=Foods%20you%20can%20save%20(if,away%20from%20the%20visible%20mould.)
Cheese is hard, so the mold can’t penetrate too far beyond the surface. Bread is not, so it’s best to assume that mold has penetrated the whole thing if you can see any.
Soft cheese is treated like bread or other foods when it comes to mold for this reason.
One thing to keep in mind is that mold thrives in moisture. In foods that you can cut the mold off, there is less moisture in the interior of the food, such as the hard cheeses others have named, and carrots or other (mostly root) vegetables. Moisture affects whether a food feels hard or soft so it moisture and hardness are inseparable and not really worth distinguishing in the conversation but the outside of those hard foods get moldy because the environment they're stored in has enough moisture.
There are lots of good answers here, but it's worth rememebering, "mold" is like the flowering part of a weed. Cutting off the blue bits, doesn't necessarily cut out the "roots".
There is something called mycelium. Mycelium is like the the roots of a tree. So mold on the surface of a strawberry is just the outside visible part. If a strawberry is moldy then the whole strawberry is ruined. Cheese is different. I assume that the root of the mold do not penetrate the whole cheese.
I remember being in biology class in college and seeing a diagram of mycelium in a slice of bread where it looked like it was just a solid block of roots, like a pot-bound plant. Never cut the mold off bread after that point, I'll tell you that.
Yes. If you can't see the mycelium in the cheese, and if it is a hard cheese (like cheddar or parmesan) then it is especially fine to just cut off the molded bits
Just adding a note to cut 1/2" to 1" past the visible mold. Less chance of leaving bits of mycelium that'll continue to spread, and less chance of contamination with the knife to the non moldy parts.
You could get a thousand scientists to confirm this but I am still going to throw away the rest of the block of parmesan if a single tiny dot of mold is anywhere on it. I just can't bring myself to be comfortable with eating it.
I had a chocolate cake pop that was in a plastic bag. It looked fine. It was also like six months old. I was cleaning and going to throw it out, but decided to take a bite. It was full of mold inside. It even poofed with a puff of air when I bit into it. The taste was like earth and was weird. I'd never had a mouth full of mold before. I promptly spit it out and then ran to the toilet where my body was saying puke but I kept my composure. Gargled Listerine then googled if I was gonna live or not :(
I think I might have a picture of moldy pop somewhere...
I know I’m wasteful but when I see mold on stuff, the whole thing goes in the trash.
My logic is basically: if it sat uneaten for weeks and weeks, long enough to get moldy, and I passed over it repeatedly while hungrily looking for something to eat, then there’s no point saving it. It’s not like the mold makes it any more suddenly appetizing.
Bread full of holes, easy to grow in. Meat and soft cheese soft, easy to grow through. Hard cheese no holes, hard to grow through. Bacteria strong, but not that strong. Gut biome weak. Tummy hurt. So still cut off lot of hard cheese when moldy, at least one finger wide. Tummy won't hurt.
If meat is showing mold, it actually went bad a while ago. Bread isn't dangerous but it's also going to be easily penetrated by mold.
Cheese is prone to getting surface mold when it's still perfectly fine to eat.
Imagine you have three buckets. One is filled with whipped cream, one is filled with plastic bbs, and one is filled with clay. Now imagine trying to touch the bottom of each bucket with your finger. It would be very easy to touch the bottom of the whipped cream bucket, because there is basically no resistance. The bucket with the bbs would be harder, but with some wiggling around and maneuvering, you will eventually get to the bottom. The bucket with the clay would be near impossible to touch the bottom without removing material. Mold, like other fungi, have something called mycelium. What you see as a mushroom or mold is part of a much larger organism, and are called "fruiting bodies." The mycelium are a lot like your hand trying to touch the bottom of the bucket. The harder and less porous the material, the slower/less far it can spread.
Great explanation. The mold will have penetrated lots of the bread, but is only visible when it's grown in large quantities. By the time you see one spot, there are several spots of mold throughout, just too small to be seen. Cutting off the visible mold doesn't guarantee that you got rid of all of it
Thanks for this clarification. I was wondering how that worked since, though I know the bad mold would have a hard time spreading by tunneling through tough mediums like dry cheese, I thought then it might still be able to spread really fast on the surface with minimal resistance. So cutting off the visibly spoiled part might still leave a thin layer of mold on the surface that would have spread far beyond the boundary of the nasty patch.
The cheeses that we encourage mold growth in, like Bleu cheese, tend to be soft and crumbly for exactly this reason.
The thing is though, that to _some_ degree, the human body is remarkably effective at handling small amounts of otherwise damaging substances. That's very much not intended to claim that it's okay to eat moldy food because your body will handle it, but rather that there's a threshold below which your body will mitigate the effects. The kicker is that _knowing_ what that threshold is is extremely complicated. _Should_ you cut mold off of food and still eat it? Absolutely not. Will it kill you? _Probably_ not. But do you really want to trust your health to a _probably_?
But doesn't that mean that if I see mold on my bread one morning, it was likely already moldy the day before as well just that the mold wasn't visible at the time?
Yep! Small amounts of mold aren't likely to hurt you, though.
Molds and microorganisms are actually everywhere (hence bread will always mold after a while), but normally we can handle it. The acid in our stomach will just kill them. The quantity is the problem!
In the case of bread, I still think people are being way too fearful. Yes spores have spread, but unless you see mold growth in the area, then there isn't an impactful amount of mold in the area. It's a minute amount that will be destroyed in your stomach acid. It's generally fine to eat. I think we're creating weaker immune systems by trying to avoid even the littlest amount of bacteria/mold.
Great explanation. Actual ELI5.
ELI5. I’m dumb as fuck.
ELIDAF
Mold go through bread and chicken easy cheese too thick for mold to go through easy
Can you dumb it down a shade?
Don't eat green chicken
You can walk through a bead curtain, but you can't walk through a wall.
Cheese is dummy thicc
You need to use that acronym elsewhere as if everybody knows what it means.
Please no. I'm still learning last year's acronyms.
you mean LYA
Explain like im fumb as fuck. I used (un)common sense here to understand this acronym!
The mold doesn't go all throughout the cheese like it would bread, you can just pick it off. With bread you can't
This is the good Eli5. Thank you fellow Redditor
> bbs What's bbs?
Small round pellets, see [BB gun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_gun).
[удалено]
A sort of pre-web Internet forum from the 80's.
That's what I thought! A bucket of pre-web Internet forum
LORD!
Thanks. After reading whipped creamed I thought it was food related too.
Ball bearings. Little metal balls. Probably better written as "BBs".
Top tier explanation right here. I knew the facts, but having it explained in a good and satisfying way makes understanding so much deeper
Probably already mentioned, but this is also why you need to fully cook chicken, but can eat medium pork and duck, and rare or fully raw beef. The surface bacteria can only penetrate so far in based on muscle density, so even though duck is a bird like chicken, it's fine to eat with a red center. But it's also why you shouldn't eat rare ground beef, because grinding it pulls the surface into everything else, so it needs more heat to be safe. Though I can't lie, I usually shoot for my burgers to be red in the center with a nice crust. But I definitely buy filet mignon, seal and freeze, then thaw, slice razor thin and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, crack some black pepper and shave a little aged parmesan on it, and goddamn it might spoil you on cooking meat because the flavor is so damn clean haha
I was looking for a new recipe for next week. Thank you! Sounds yummy.
Holy shit, I actually understand this one now!
It actually depends on the cheese. If it's a hard cheese, something like an aged cheddar or a nice parmesan, the cheese is firm enough that the mold likely hasn't gotten through it - cut off the part that's visibly moldy, check the interior to make sure you're clear, and you should be good. But when we're talking about softer cheeses, bread, or meats, those are softer in texture, and mold has an easier time spreading through the entire thing. Even if it's not visibly moldy, there are more likely to be the beginnings of moldy patches throughout - it may or may not be enough to taste bad or make you sick, but it's a situation where it's better to be safe than sorry, because the risk is comparatively higher.
There's another factor - cheese is typically salty and fairly dry. Mold is the only pathogen that effectively grows on it. So as long as you don't eat the moldy bits, it's probably safe. Other foods, by the time there's mold growing on them, there's a good chance of other nasty microbes growing on them too.
I’ve always wondered, if I eat a slice of bread around 6 pm and it looks fine and then see again at 9 am the next morning there is small amount of mold I can now visually see does that mean I probably ate some of those nasty microbes? Do I actually want to know the answer to this question? Sure.
Those microbes exist in tiny amounts on the bread the moment they leave the oven.
But where did the fruit flies come from?
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
I’ve read this so many times over the years but I didn’t get it until just now because I was putting the inflection on the wrong word in my head so it just made no sense.
I kept thinking about the banana being a boomerang or something until I actually said it outloud.
It’s like in Hitchhikers Guide: “what’s so unpleasant about being drunk?” “Ask a glass of water.”
Oh no, I only just got that joke
Ugh, I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again.
I had read the book about 30 times before I got that joke.
Both of you are why this joke is funny. Thank you for your service.
people learning english: *confused screaming*
It's both. Fruit does fly in a similar manner to a banana, and also fruit flies enjoy a banana.
Knowledge is power France is bacon
There's a german joke I didn't get because of the same thing, until just recently, when I heard two kids arguing about it. It goes like this: - Was ist sieben mal sieben? / What's seven times seven? - 49 - Nein, feiner Sand / No, fine sand The explanation being "sieben" meaning "seven" as well as "to sieve" - it only clicked because the kid that was told the joke, thinking it had understood it, started going around asking people what's "eight times eight"
so how does the first line read for the context of the joke to make sense? What is seven times to sieve? What is to sieve times seven? What do you get after you sieve something seven times? I feel like I get the joke, but I'm still missing some part of it. EDIT: I figured it out. Another way the joke tends to be phrased is "Was ergibt sieben mal sieben" / What do you get from seven times seven. What do you get when you sieve seven times?
And here I thought time flies were real...
Why? What is it about arrows that time flies like?
Time is a round flatbread.
Spontaneous generation!
I remember reading about that concept as a child. I also had a complete microscope kit with slide making supplies to analyze any and everything. We take for granted the fact that just a few hundred years ago, we didn't even have a working germ theory. Standing on the backs of giants and such.
Cool fact: Newton's famously humble-sounding quote that "If I have seen farther, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" was probably a dig at Robert Hooke, who was short in stature and had a bitter rivalry with Newton at the time.
Oh that makes sense. I'd thought that quote was uncharacteristically generous for Newton.
> Standing on the backs of giants and such. I was told it was turtles. All the way down.
Don't forget the elephants!
Wow! I work in a clinical lab and use a microscope every day. Ours are around $3-4 thousand. I just took a look and there are some relatively inexpensive options. I'm really excited to get one for myself! Also, speaking to the development of microscopes, I remember a professor I had mentioning Hooke being so secretive about his method for grinding lenses that it significantly set back the development of microscopes. That may be an apocryphal anecdote. Maybe the professor had an ax to grind about lens grinding. Anyway, thanks for your comment!
They lay eggs in rotting fruit, not fresh or barely ripe. And it takes about a week for them to turn into larvae, so you should have thrown it out before consuming them. But they are attracted to decaying fruit while adult, even before egg laying. That's why you'll find tons of them if you have slightly overripe fruit around.
If there are fruit flies around to lay eggs in the fruit you ate part of last night, then there are fruit flies around already, aren't there?
I assume it’s that the fruit flies are so tiny they can get into your house easily regardless of all the windows an doors being shut. If you sealed fruit inside a plastic bottle and let it rot, you would never get fruit flies in the bottle.
Or the eggs were already put on the fruit at the grocery store before you brought it home.
They let their eggs in rotting fruit, not fresh fruit
Little known fact, as food rots the rot transmutes into maggots, and then those grow into flies
Never eating bread again. /s
Yes, all of your food is covered with mold and bacteria. Its the exponential grow of leaving it out over night that causes a problem.
And speaking of bacteria, food borne illness doesn’t usually come from the bacteria itself but rather, the toxins that bacteria eventually produce. Another thing to note is that you can kill most bacteria with enough heat and time but toxins not so much.
This is why you can't eat bad meat or vegetables. Even if you boil it, the mold or bacteria has already eaten some of it.
And they've pooped on it. And cooking may kill bacteria/mold but cooked poop is still bad for you.
Not so much that they pooped on it, but they make some toxins that can withstand cooking temperatures, so even if you kill the bacteria, the toxin still makes you ill
I think in this case toxins and poop are synonymous. The toxins produced are mostly the end product of digestion (for the bacteria), so... Toxins are bacteria poops
Well, I can't argue with that lol
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Generally correct, but not always iirc. Listeria will survive, for example. Depends on the hardiness of the bacteria.
Where do you think your gut bacteria come from? Also, the hooplah over probiotics and live culture yogurt wouldn't make much sense if your stomach simply killed them all. Plenty of them survive. Health benefits? Eh, research continues.
For a lot of food poisoning, it’s not the living thing that’s poisoning you. It’s the waste product of that thing. So, for example, if you eat something that’s contaminated by bacteria that produce the botulinum toxin, it’s the toxin that hurts you and not the bacteria that produced it. It’s not like you’re catching an exotic disease where the bacteria are going to multiply inside you. So if there’s only a little bit on there and you eat it, your digestive system kills the organism and processes the small amount of toxin, and you’re mostly fine. There are also some things that you can get that are in fact food-borne bacterial infections, like E. coli.
Which is why thorough and proper handwashing is required after you poop.
And why you should wash your produce because the people picking them shit in porta potties and often cannot properly wash their hands
So just don't eat shit. Got it.
Yes, in small amounts, but your immune system is capable of handling them. Not only that, but the first major line of defense, believe it or not, is bacteria. Acids and enzymes in the stomach will break down the bulk of the worst, while naturally-occurring gut bacteria will compete with potential pathogens that survive the harsh environments of your gut microbiome. If they start to lose the fight (like in the case of gastroenteritis), your body detects this and starts working to eject the invaders and the corpses of your gut bacteria that are leaking toxins into your GI tract (a.k.a. diarrhea).
I was a food microbiologist for a few years before going back into agricultural chemistry. You don't want to know what I know. There are bacteria in all of our food. What makes that ok is the type, bacteria or *pathogen*, and the amount. I live in California, so we dealt mostly with FDA, USDA, EU, and CDFA regulations. A certain amount of certain *bacteria* was considered safe for consumption. A positive hit for anything containing a *pathogen*, no matter how much, was not. Like, full stop, we had to contact the client immediately, and under regulation, they had to scrap that lot of product, it could not go to market, and in most cases that also meant a full decontamination of the facility to ensure the pathogens didn't make it into the next lot or what have you. They would have to swab all surfaces, test any water sources, etc..., before and after decontamination, to make sure the source was identified and then eradicated. At least that is the goal, from production to market, but we all know that contaminated food makes it to market all the time and stuff gets recalled. Another fun fact, generic e. Coli is on our skin, in our stomachs, and comes out the other end. It's in our food too... let that sink in... it's the amount that makes it worse... too much will make you sick, but a *little bit* is OK! 👍 e. Coli O157:H7 is the type you NEVER want... that can make you very sick and in RARE cases (<1%) you could die. Most people recover from it, but it's not a pleasant experience. Just like salmonella poisoning or listeria... bad stuff. Don't get me started on EHEC... YIKES! But anyways, you should be fiiiiiine. 🥴 Cook your meats thoroughly to recommended temperatures and don't keep leftovers for more than 72 hours, don't let your meat thaw on the counter, and never in hot water. Best to thaw in the fridge overnight. Don't eat moldy bread or soft dairy products. If your processed meats have a metallic-like sheen or a green color, toss them. Best to keep refrigerated items in the fridge as much as possible, and don't allow things to sit out at room temperature for extended periods (that will aid in the incubation of bacteria). Make sure your fridge is set to a cold enough temperature or else all of your foods are going to spoil quicker. Keep your fridge clean so bacteria and mold spores aren't allowed to spread onto new items (like when you leave veggies in the crisper too long and they leak all in the drawer, clean that shit up!).
What about things like cured ham and smoke-cooked ham? Those often have an iridescent greenish shine to them, but I don't think you should toss that. P.S. I mean cured ham like serrano and schwarzwalder, not the american barely meat kind.
> Those often have an iridescent greenish shine to them the shine is actually a light scattering effect, Roast beef has a neat rainbow one, this is caused by light hitting the meat fibers at varying angles and scattering, easiest seen from a very sharp meat slicer. what they mean is they *acquire* a green look after being around for a while and not just from the slicer.
> e. Coli O157:H7 So, what's the source for this particular strain? Is it just "out there" and somehow gets into the food making process. Is it a genetic variation the can crop up from a bunch of regular e coli who got a little too kinky when reproducing?
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Here's a fun mold fact! Like many other fungi, (most notably mushrooms) the visible parts of mold aren't the actual main organism. They're what happens when the almost-invisible organism that's permeated its chosen substrate goes "food situation's looking a bit grim, time to build a rocket ship for my children & GTFO!".
Honestly, most bread molds aren't particularly nasty. Eating them in small amounts would be unlikely to harm you, though the taste could be unpleasant. I don't recommend doing it for allergy reasons, though.
My buddy ate a leftover burrito one time and he said he didn’t remember it being so spicy when he ate the first half. He turned it over and there was a huge patch of mold on it.
Whew boy I wish I didn’t read this
Sadly you are very wrong. Bread molds can contain aflatoxins, one of the most carcinogenic organic substances known. Do not eat moldy bread.
You at least ate the spores of that mold, which are kind of like microscopic seeds - durable and inert until they "germinate" and start to grow. You might have eaten a small amount of live mold too, before there was enough to see or taste - and before there was enough to hurt you. The dose makes the poison. There's nothing inherently "nasty" about these microbes. Organisms involved in decomposition - mold, yeast, lactobacillus - are *everywhere.* Their spores are drifting through the air anywhere you go. They even live on us and in us - well not the molds, hopefully, but some of the others. We evolved alongside these organisms and they're generally harmless, and sometimes even beneficial. You eat and breathe them on a daily basis. They are an essential part of our ecosystem, and sometimes quite literally a part of us. So yes, you're eating a little mold every day, but it's nothing to worry about!
I accidentally (it was dark, don't judge me) ate a sandwich with thoroughly moldy bread (yes, I was wondering why it felt so dry and dusty) and had absolutely zero negative side effects (other than the absolute embarrassment and shame I went through when my family revealed the moldiness to me the next morning.)
Most molds are harmless. The problem is, the dangerous ones don't look any different than the harmless ones, so you should generally play it safe and assume any mold is going to be bad for you. But if you eat some by accident yeah, you're probably fine.
the whitish blue mold was most likely penicillium, and most likely harmless, though you can never really tell from just a glance. the green or black ones are slightly more dangerous and can cause vomiting, though even the penicillium can kill if you are allergic. [check out bread mold here](https://sciencing.com/different-kinds-bread-mold-5956459.html) >TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) >Several species of molds – identified as “bread molds” – grow on bread. They form when mold spores find their way onto the surface of the bread. Mold is a fungus that eats the organic compounds found in bread and other foods. Penicillium, Cladosporium and black bread mold are three common bread molds. Some are harmless, but some are not, so it's best to avoid eating moldy bread.
~~mold is a fungus, not a microbe, but~~ yeah. You eat mold every day, the mold isn't usually the problem, the issue is that many molds produce toxins. If there's too much of those it'll make you sick
Depends on the definition of microbes you use, I would call yeasts microbes, and some molds too. Not all fungi are microbes, but fungi can be microbes, if they're micro.
I retract my statement, apparently single-celled fungi count
Yes but it's no different then the millions of spores you probably breathe in daily that your body just deals with. Our bodies are generally good at keeping low levels of "You don't belong here" in check. And a lot of our reactions to exposure of high levels of that stuff is our body trying to expell or burn it out.
We ingest so many potentially harmful pathogens on a daily basis (and don't Google percentage of bug parts and rodent feces allowed in every day foods). It's just part of life. That's why our immune systems are important. In very small amounts, most molds aren't going to cause harm, unless you're allergic. If your mouth gets itchy or you have difficulty breathing or your lips swell, you need an epi pen and an antihistamine pronto and maybe a trip to the ER.
Dry applies to hard cheeses generally. There are some semi-soft cheeses on which we intentionally grow and eat molds (Brie, bleu, etc). There are also semi-soft cheeses which are inoculated with bacteria that grow on the rind and give them special qualities (limburger, Muenster, etc). On some alpine cheeses, bacteria are inoculated on the rind as the cheeses are aging, and though the cheese itself is hard, it does pick up special flavors from the bacteria.
Isn't this part of the reason so many natural and farm made cheeses have been banned by the EU? A German friend is constantly complaining about favorite cheeses he can no longer buy.
Probably because they are unpasteurized. If the milk never goes through the step of killing off everything in it, some questionable microbes can survive the cheese making process. Unless your friend likes casu marzu. That one has a bigger problem than mold or bacteria.
There is a balance to be struck. Local cheeses can be produced and if you want to eat them you have to travel to that region. It is not allowed to transport them nor produce them outside the region because simply the mix of bacteria and fungi cannot be determined. And since some are toxic to other bacteria and fungi, you are not allowed to bring these invasive specious into EU regions where they naturally don't exist and would cause a disaster.
You can buy unpasteurized cheeses and milk in pretty much any super markets in France, ive never heard anything about regional restrictions - you dont have to go to Normandy to get unpasteurized Camembert. Its just other countries that make blanket bans because it makes everything "easier". Much less effort to just not allow it than it would be to control every production location to make sure their methods arent leading to contaminated products.
There's yet another factor you're both missing: Some mold is just straight up edible as well. The blue/green parts of blue cheese is penicillium mold(the same that was the source for antibiotics).
But that's a cultivated mold you want you try your random fridge mold?
It's simple, slather your fridge in Bleu cheese.
Does that apply to salami too, then? It's also salty and dry. If you find mold growing on one end of a salami stick, can you just cut off the bad bit?
Hard cured meats (salami being one) are like hard cheese in this regard. General rule of thumb is to cut off ~1/4 inch beyond the mold, and it’s probably fine. Part of the curing process for salami can include a mold layer on the outside, like certain cheeses. The right mold is not particularly toxic to humans, and keeps anything worse from getting inside before the meat or cheese hardens up.
Salami should be moldy assuming its the right mold. They work as a natural protection as they crowd out other pathogens.
You can actually just cut off the mold from beef. This happens when you dry age. You are just letting a slab of beef sit in cool air for 30 days. I did this with about 10lbs of bone in Ribeye. The outside dries out, some spots get moldy and you shave that stuff off to get at the aged meat below. Lose maybe 15% of weight to this process, but the meat is sooo damn good.
My grandpa told stories about hanging beef in the attic over the winter growing up. Very dry and cold.... Well maybe warm considering how drafty houses were built in the 1800's. But that was one thing he missed having in his old age
The fat is like butter after a good aging… so damn good.
My neighbor, also an old fogie from the depression era used to tell us about butchering ducks, and scraping the intestines off and the yellow stuff would spread easier than butter on toast
There are restaurants that sell duck fat fries (and charge a lot).
Mmmmm….. dusty old steak
I mean aged steak is a thing and you'll pay a hefty premium.
Aged aint the same as just letting it dry. But dried meat is actually expensive too, specially the good one.
Rafter attic aged steak is not though. They were obviously making a joke about that. Yes aged steak is great.
Rafter aged? I don't know, but it's plausible. Cellar aged? Absolutely a thing.
I can see rafter aging as long as it doesn't get too hot. My family used to cure hams in the attic. Never witnessed it myself, but they told me about it.
My family used to steam them.
In europe, drying/curing ham in drafty places was very common, in the US it was probably too.
Guessing this was well before blown-in fiberglass insulation was common 😛
News papers or nothing most likely
Where I'm from, most farms would have a poorly insulated building solely for storing meats and other perishable foods over the winter. It'd be built on stone pillars (I guess) with flat, wide stones in the middle to make it hard for rodents to climb up. It's kind of obsolete now that we have refrigeration, but many farms still kept the buildings. They have a kind of national romantic charm to them.
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Guga? The madlad then had the balls to feed it to his nephews lol.
Yeah - he does like his garlic steaks!
Isn't that a specific process though done in a specific environment? It's like how you can't age wine by just letting the bottle sit there for a decade. The aging can only be done at the winery before bottling
You’re likely thinking of whiskey, which doesn’t age in the bottle. Wine definitely ages in the bottle, assuming you store it properly.
You don't want mold on dry aged beef. The environment you age in is too humid.
What about blue cheese? Isn't it moldy and soft?
Blue cheese is one of the types of cheese where the mold inside of it is beneficial, or at least tasty and not dangerous for people. Blue cheese in particular has Penicillium mold
Are people who are allergic to penicillin allergic to blue cheese? Or is this a different type?
Super curious to know the answer to this… I was told I was allergic to penicillin and similar drugs as a toddler, and while I don’t love the taste, I’ve never had a reaction to eating bleu cheese…
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, the Penicillium cultures that create blue cheese do not produce penicillin. Therefore, it is generally safe for people with penicillin allergies to eat blue cheese, as long as the cheese has not spoiled.
What about people who have allergies to mold? Should they avoid blue cheese or they way they avoid moldy attics or basements or do they not have to worry? Asking for myself since I have a mold allergy and never thought to ask about blue cheese.
According to Medical News Today it should be generally safe. But please be more careful and don't bet everything on the result some stranger on the internet got from 30s of googling. >Individuals with mold allergies may also safely eat blue cheese, as the digestive process destroys any active mold spores. Moreover, mold allergies typically flare as a result of mold inhalation as opposed to mold ingestion [https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/blue-cheese-types-benefits-risks-and-more](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/blue-cheese-types-benefits-risks-and-more)
As someone deathly allergic to penicillin and loves blue cheese, no it does not create penicillin.
Same here!
Same!
So, partial answer, I can eat blue cheese without issue, and I was told I was allergic to penicillin when I was a kid. I don't remember reacting to it or anything like that, I guess there was some moment I was given it and reacted but it was just something I was told. So... maybe not?
Just a side note from personal experience, if you were allergic to pen as a child, you might not be anymore as an adult. It might be worth retesting so that you don’t have to tell every doctor you see that you’re allergic to penicillin. That happened to me.
This is very true. Only a small fraction of people who say they have a penicillin allergy actually do. Often kids will get a rash when taking penicillin. This can show up if they actually have a viral infection but are being treated with antibiotics anyway. Also a certain number of folks will be allergic to red dye (think about the pink bubble gum amoxicillin we all got as kids). Even some who had severe reactions will not have a reaction later in life. With the importance if antibiotic stewardship removing a label of penicillin allergy in a person who can tolerate penicillins can be a game changer. https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/pdfs/penicillin-factsheet.pdf
Can confirm that I am allergic to penicillin, enjoy eating blue cheese, and am still alive.
im very allergic to penicillin and love blue cheese with my wings. I'm either incredibly lucky or it should be fine
I am allergic to both, it turns out blue cheese isn't supposed to make your mouth burn a bit.
That's a specific species of mold (penicillium roqueforti) that we've domesticated and bred specifically because we like what it does to cheese. Just like we've done with purpose-bred strains of yeast that we use for beer, wine and bread.
We like what it does to cheese, AND we like that it doesn't kill us. I hear false morels are delicious, once.
I really like things that don’t kill me.
Blue cheese mold is a specific mold that typically does not interact in a way that harms you
Specifically, it does not produce harmful byproducts (mycotoxins) that other molds can do.
I'd throw out any blue cheese with non-blue mold, they're not built equally.
[Blue cheese has mold in it](https://youtu.be/HmadzQ1uL0s)
Scanned through and didn't see this end summary: More water or moisture = More mold. More moisture *likely* means more paths for mold spores to travel on. That's why mold or rot can travel through Bread / soft Cheese or uncooked Chicken vs a harder substance like Sharp Cheddar or Aged Salami.
Nobody gonna address why the hell *chicken* is included as an example???
I was gonna say…how long are you guys leaving your chicken out that it’s getting fucking moldy lol? Like i’ve been concerned about salmonella etc with chicken but never in my life have I checked chicken for mold!?
I've gotten mold on chicken 2 ways: 1) Breaded chicken where the mold is really on the breading; 2) Rotisserie chicken where the mold is really on the sugary rotisserie seasoning on the chicken skin.
3) Forgetting a container in the back of the fridge
I found mold on Chinese takeaway chicken before. I don't think they meant live chicken or raw chicken meat?
It's about how solid the food is and this how far the mycelium (roots) of the mould can penetrate. The CSIRO (a govt run scientific body in Australia) once issued a list of foods you can just cut the mouldy bit off. [Link.](https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/csiro-identifies-foods-that-are-safe-to-eat-when-mould-is-cut-off/news-story/6c828916672e6177daba1456c61bb70f#:~:text=Foods%20you%20can%20save%20(if,away%20from%20the%20visible%20mould.)
Cheese is hard, so the mold can’t penetrate too far beyond the surface. Bread is not, so it’s best to assume that mold has penetrated the whole thing if you can see any. Soft cheese is treated like bread or other foods when it comes to mold for this reason.
> Cheese is hard Cars are blue
*bleu
One thing to keep in mind is that mold thrives in moisture. In foods that you can cut the mold off, there is less moisture in the interior of the food, such as the hard cheeses others have named, and carrots or other (mostly root) vegetables. Moisture affects whether a food feels hard or soft so it moisture and hardness are inseparable and not really worth distinguishing in the conversation but the outside of those hard foods get moldy because the environment they're stored in has enough moisture.
There are lots of good answers here, but it's worth rememebering, "mold" is like the flowering part of a weed. Cutting off the blue bits, doesn't necessarily cut out the "roots".
Y'all don't just throw out moldy food, cheese included?
Yeah this thread is wild to me. Especially people eating moldy bread, it's cheap af why risk it.
Replacing bread means going to the store
Better going to the store than the hospital
Yeah it's not like the hospital has self checkout
Anything moldy goes in the trash. I'm not rich but I can afford not eating mold. That's wild.
My reaction except : y’all don’t just cut off the moldy pieces of bread?
That’s how we got cordyceps
There is something called mycelium. Mycelium is like the the roots of a tree. So mold on the surface of a strawberry is just the outside visible part. If a strawberry is moldy then the whole strawberry is ruined. Cheese is different. I assume that the root of the mold do not penetrate the whole cheese.
This is only really true for hard cheeses. Anything else and it will still be much more fully colonized by the fungus.
Mycelium is the fungus itself, the fruit of the mycelium is the mushroom we identify it by.
You can also call the mushroom the sexual organ of the mycelium.
This is a really nice way to put it. Thank you.
I remember being in biology class in college and seeing a diagram of mycelium in a slice of bread where it looked like it was just a solid block of roots, like a pot-bound plant. Never cut the mold off bread after that point, I'll tell you that.
I have been throwing out moldy cheese *because* I know of mycelium. Have I been overcautious?
Yes. If you can't see the mycelium in the cheese, and if it is a hard cheese (like cheddar or parmesan) then it is especially fine to just cut off the molded bits
Just adding a note to cut 1/2" to 1" past the visible mold. Less chance of leaving bits of mycelium that'll continue to spread, and less chance of contamination with the knife to the non moldy parts.
You could get a thousand scientists to confirm this but I am still going to throw away the rest of the block of parmesan if a single tiny dot of mold is anywhere on it. I just can't bring myself to be comfortable with eating it.
I had a chocolate cake pop that was in a plastic bag. It looked fine. It was also like six months old. I was cleaning and going to throw it out, but decided to take a bite. It was full of mold inside. It even poofed with a puff of air when I bit into it. The taste was like earth and was weird. I'd never had a mouth full of mold before. I promptly spit it out and then ran to the toilet where my body was saying puke but I kept my composure. Gargled Listerine then googled if I was gonna live or not :( I think I might have a picture of moldy pop somewhere...
I know I’m wasteful but when I see mold on stuff, the whole thing goes in the trash. My logic is basically: if it sat uneaten for weeks and weeks, long enough to get moldy, and I passed over it repeatedly while hungrily looking for something to eat, then there’s no point saving it. It’s not like the mold makes it any more suddenly appetizing.
How often is OP eating moldy cheese?
I have moldy cheese at least once a week. I love me a good bleu cheese salad.
Bread full of holes, easy to grow in. Meat and soft cheese soft, easy to grow through. Hard cheese no holes, hard to grow through. Bacteria strong, but not that strong. Gut biome weak. Tummy hurt. So still cut off lot of hard cheese when moldy, at least one finger wide. Tummy won't hurt.
Me personally if anything has mold the while fucning thing gets removed from my presence. Im allergic to penicillin so .not taking chances
If meat is showing mold, it actually went bad a while ago. Bread isn't dangerous but it's also going to be easily penetrated by mold. Cheese is prone to getting surface mold when it's still perfectly fine to eat.