yuunikkiIf i see a tiny but of mold on a slice of cheese can I tear the part with the mold off and still eat the rest of the untouched cheese?
MothraMost people here saying it’s fine for hard cheese but not for soft ones or bread. I mean, they’re not wrong. But you asked about a tiny bit of mould.
I’ve removed the mouldy parts of hard cheese, soft cheese, cream cheese, breads, and fruits, and have eaten the rest more times I can remember. I never got sick from it. If you are considering eating what’s left of food after discarding a mouldy part, make sure to judge by smell and sight as well. Does it stink? Is the color off? Taste a little bit, is it bitter or sour? If the answers to all these are “no”, then it’s very likely safe.
This is just not true. From a food safety perspective, if there’s mould and it’s a soft food, it’s contaminated. You can absolutely get sick from foods without visible signs of spoilage (not to mention there is a visible sign, mould, but we’re ignoring that.)
That said, I will sometimes take the risk by cutting off the mould. I would never serve it to someone else without letting them know the risks. If you do this you need to understand it’s a gamble.
Also, mycotoxins bioaccumulate. You might not get sick now, but you’re definitely increasing your chance of future illness and potentially reduced lifespan.
HamartiogonicWait what. I thought kidneys and liver would handle small amounts of those toxins.
They can handle it, and they do filter it out of you, but it is a slow process that takes a lot of time compared to how the body processes other waste products. The danger is that mycotoxins are harmful in extremely small amounts, so any extended accumulation is harmful.
Thanks for the link. That was interesting. If I read that correctly, it seems to prove that enniatin B has been found in human livers. That compound appears to linger in the tissue long enough that it can be detected, but I didn’t notice any reference to that level being safe or unsafe. I guess it’s up to other studies to explore the LD50 now that we know it can be found in the liver.
Exactly. It seems like a lot of the research in this area is quite new (last 5 years or so), so we’re always learning more! And from my understanding, the LD50 probably isn’t that important for most people for these toxins, it’s more at what levels do they start causing detectable symptoms and by how far do they raise your risk of cancers and other diseases. “The poison is in the dose”, but just because it doesn’t kill you instantly doesn’t mean it’s not hurting you in the long term.