Your favourite pastry may grow mould overnight. Should you trash it or should you eat it? Mould on food – all you need to know!

I remember my first encounter with mould on food when I was making buttered bread during my early years. When I took the bread out from the bread closet, it was half-covered with a grayish, teal furry looking mould. I learned that was bad and not good to eat, even if the end of the bread is okay.

As I grew older, I saw mould sometimes on top or on the sides of the home-made preserve jars, my mom or grandmother had made. Mom cleaned it thoroughly and the jam always tasted good. Now, juices tend to have a bit of a funky taste. Then later I saw it on cottage cheese, milk, cheese, and nuts. I have heard so many different opinions about mould, so I finally decided to look up all there is to know about it on food.

Why is it important to talk about mould?

Because of misknowledge, we may waste food that is still edible to eat. Wasted food means wasted money, more garbage, and contributing more climate change, as food waste is considered to be one of the most heated environmental problems. If you waste food, it means that you may have wasted some of your next meal. Each bite you eat is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Think of growing, processing, packaging and transporting the food we eat. All this contributes to climate change. Discarded food will rot and release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“Fruit always starts to rot from the inside“

I heard this from a woman with whom we were circled around to get food from Foodsharing in Berlin. I just got an apple and it had a soft brown mouldy spot. She said I should not eat it. It got me thinking. Would the same apply to bread, which is covered with small mouldy spots? Would it be okay just to cut the bad parts off and then eat it?

The little colourful spots you see on food is just the mould on the surface. These spores allow the mould to reproduce. It works really similar to plants – it has roots below the surface, which travel deep into the food. It really doesn’t help just to remove the spots covering the bread. If you do that and eat it, you will consume some mouthfuls of fungus nevertheless. This wouldn’t be life-threatening, but what one should keep in mind is that foods that are mouldy may also have invisible bacteria growing along with the mould.

Luckily most moulds are harmless, but unfortunately, some are dangerous. Mycotoxins are the poisonous ones. They are substances produced by certain ones found primarily in grain and nut crops. But they are also in celery, grape juice, apples, and other produce. These substances are often contained in and around the threads that burrow into the food and can cause allergic reactions or respiratory problems.

Some mould is good for you!

I guess you know that some moulds are used to make certain kinds of cheeses and can be on the surface of cheese or be developed internally. This is all good. For example, the blue-veined cheese such as Roquefort, blue, Gorgonzola, and Stilton are created by the introduction of P. roqueforti or Penicillium roqueforti spores. Brie and Camembert have white surface moulds. Other cheeses have both an internal and a surface mould. These are used to manufacture these cheeses are safe to eat.

As a vegan, I do not know much about it anymore. I haven’t had any vegan cheese go mouldy on me. Not sure if that will ever happen to me. 😀

Help – moldy food!

Mould grows out of spores that are always in the air. Mould spores are not harmful in the air, but when they land on a surface, they start searching for nutrients and water. So food serves as the perfect environment for mould to grow – once it starts growing, it usually will spread quickly.

If there is some mould on your food – don’t panic yet. Read the tips below. They will help you to figure out, which foods are not good to eat, when they are mouldy and which are good to go. You just have to cut the mouldy part off. Exciting!

THROW THESE OUT if you see mold:

• Luncheon meats, bacon, or hot dogs, cooked leftover meat and poultry
• Cooked casseroles
• Cooked grain and pasta
• Soft cheese (i.e. cottage, cream cheese, Neufchatel, chevre, Bel Paese, etc.)
• Crumbled, shredded, and sliced cheeses (all types)
• Yogurt and sour cream
• Peanut butter
• Legumes
• Nuts
• Bread and baked goods
• Jams and jellies*
• Cheese made with mold (such as Roquefort, blue, Gorgonzola, Stilton, Brie, Camembert)

*The mould in jams and jellied could be producing a mycotoxin. Microbiologists recommend against scooping out the mould and using the remaining condiment. I guess my grandmother and mother have been wrong all this time. :O

EAT THESE, after cutting off the mold

• Hard salami and dry-cured country hams (Eat them. Scrub mould off the surface. It is normal for these shelf-stable products to have surface mould.)
• Firm fruits and vegetables (such as cabbage, bell peppers, carrots, etc.), as well as hard cheeses, are OK to eat if you remove the mould.  Cut off at least 2,5 cm (1 inch) round and below the mould spot. Keep the knife out of the mould itself so it will not cross-contaminate other parts of the produce.

Remember while you’re removing mould, etc. that you should be washing your hands and food prep surfaces often.

How can I prevent mould from forming?

Refrigerate, refrigerate, refrigerate. This is the best advice coming from somebody who doesn’t even own a fridge 🙂 But I mean colder temperatures, the better, so your food doesn’t start going mouldy. Its growth is encouraged by warm and humid conditions. Be aware though, that they can also grow in the refrigerator too, just more slowly (think of yogurt and milk). When the mould spores dry, they float through the air and find conditions in which to grow some more mouldy friends.

Keep your fridge clean to avoid more food from getting spoilt and decrease food waste. And if possible keep the humidity at home 40 percent, examining food for mould before you buy it, purchasing food in small amounts so mould doesn’t have time to grow, covering food with plastic wrap, and eating leftovers within three to four days.

Sounds pretty easy, uh?

The best is not to let your food go to that state in the first place – consume it when it is fresh and do not horde food!

I have been eating mouldy bread, the same way I described above – discarding those little spots – and I am still here. After knowing that it is not only on the surface but also inside of the bread, it doesn’t make me want to eat mouldy bread anymore.

And if you are wondering what a low mould diet is, check out Balanced-healtcare.com article to find out more.

When was the last time you found mouldy food at home?

Note: Mould/Mold can be used interchangeably. Mould, as in with the ‘U’ is the Canadian and British spelling while omitting the ‘U’ as in Mold, is the American way.

References:

Imaginationstationtoledo.org

How many times do you think the ‘mould’ was used in this article?

Have you ever cleaned off the mouldy part of a food item then eaten the rest?