TIL: Can You Cut Off Mold And Eat The Rest Of The Food? And Why Is Moldy Cheese Safe To Eat?
You're craving a midnight snack, so you decide to have a sandwich - but when you take out the loaf of bread, there are tiny green dots at the end.
So what do you do? Can you cut off the moldy parts of food and just eat the rest?
And why are certain types of mold, like the one on cheese safe to eat? And what would really happen if you ate moldy food?
How mold works
Mold is a form of fungi, which grows from mold spores.
These spores are everywhere around us - they're in the air right now!
The spores are tiny, only 100th of the width of a human hair.
Like all fungi, mold preferres a warm, moist climate - but it can also grow under cold conditions, for example in the fridge!
Once the spores have found a surface to grow on, they release tiny root threads into the food - called mycelium.
The fungi there breaks down the organic matter of the food.
So can you cut off mold and still eat the rest of the food?
Well, that depends.
Mold is a lot like a regular mushroom - it has a stalk and a spore on top.
The spore is the green or white fluff that you can actually see, but the stalk can reach much deeper into the food.
The general rule to remember is that it's okay to cut off mold from hard foods like potatoes, apples or carrots. When you cut off quite a large area around the mold, you should be fine if you still eat the rest.
That's because the mold can't penetrate that deeply into hard foods.
The only problematic foods are soft, porose foods that are high in moisture.
Berries, meat, bread, pasta or other soft foods shouldn't be eaten even if you cut off the visible mold, because you never know how much deeper the threads of the mold were already spread throughout the food.
Why are some kinds of mold safe to eat?
Some foods like blue cheese or certain dried salami/sausages are purposely "infected" with mold.
That's because mold itself is not actually toxic or dangerous!
Only certain types of mold produce the so-called mycotoxins, a chemical byproduct of certain fungi.
There are many different types of mycotoxins, but in general -like the name already suggests- they are toxic to humans and animals.
The mold on blue choose does not produce those toxic chemicals.
Those kinds of mold break down the organic molecules of the food, change its fiber structure, and give the food a unique smell and flavor.
BUT this still doesn't mean that they're immune to other kinds of mold!
What would happen if you ate mold?
Unless you're not allergic to it (which is pretty rare), it's not the end of the world.
In many cases you won't feel anything if it was just a litte bit of mold.
Of course you can get a weird feeling in your stomach or throw up, but that's mostly as bad as it gets (I'm talking about accidently eating a piece of fruit that had a few moldy spots here, not eating something completely rotten of course)
Images: 1, 2, 3, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4
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Sirwinchester
Yep, I've done that quite a lot of times, cut off the moldy part and just ate it anyway hahaha. Next time I'll remember this post!
And I bet a lot of people have been wondering about this question (and probably many have done the same like me ^.^)
Most of the time, you'll still be fine and won't get sick!
This is important information and good to know. Thanks for presenting it in a simple and clear way. No mold to cut off in this post!
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
Thank you for the compliment, and glad to hear that you enjoyed the post!
I was just asking myself this last week, I was trying to make a dessert with strawberries but the very bottom ones were a little moldy.. So I googled it and turned out that I threw the worst ones away but just cut off the top bit from the rest and everything was fine!
Most of the time, we already get the right idea of what's too moldy and has to be thrown away. Of course the smell, look and taste are the most important indicators, but seems like you made the right decision!
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I've eaten plenty of mold in my life as a single man, not on purpose.
I'm not dead yet. It didn't make me sick until i saw what I was eating.
So if you are going to eat mold, just make sure you don't know about it and you'll be fine :-)