Why is it ok to eat mould when it is in cheese but not other mouldy food?

Answer 1

The specific types of mycobacteria used for cheeses (penicillium camembertii and p. roquefortii) are not harmful to most humans. (There are some who are allergic to them, of course; if eating a strong cheese makes your mouth itch and burn slightly, there's a good chance you are slightly allergic to the mold used to ferment that cheese.) And we know that cheeses are fermented with these two species because we put them in the milk (along with whatever else goes in to make the specific variety of cheese), usually after pasteurization (though not in France).

When your bread gets moldy, there's really no way of knowing WHAT is making it fuzzy and blue; whatever happened to be floating around the air in your kitchen has found itself a happy home on your food, and unless you're a dedicated mycologist there's no way of identifying it to see whether it's harmful or not.

Furthermore, there are many varieties of mold that are not necessarily harmful themselves, but they produce toxins that can be lethal. For example -- saccharomyces uvarum is a mycobacterium that grows on fruits and grains, in specific conditions; it's harmless if consumed, but it produces a toxin that is deadly in high concentrations: ethanol.

However, as long as it's sufficiently diluted, people have been consuming this for millenia; it's the yeast used to make wine and ale. (S. cerevisiae is the yeast used to make bottom-fermented beers such as pilsner and lager.)

Answer 2

The white rind is itself a mould, which grows on the surface of the cheese. Once a cheese is cut, some mould spores can make it to the cut surface and in the right conditions white mould can start to grow. If other moulds begin to form on your cheese, then this is not safe to eat, and it may be past its Use By date

Answer 3

There are other foods that depend on mould for best taste, like some salamis. Mould is only a collective name for thousands of different fungi. Some enhance certain foods, some are poisonous or just not good for humans to eat.

Answer 4

recently took a food saftey course for work

unless bacteria is cultivated for consumption, like blue cheese or yogurt, then mold is NOT SAFE to eat

another misconception is that you can peel the mold off and eat the rest of the product, this could not be farther from the truth as the fact is that the toxins that cause mold to form on the outside of the cheese actually eminate from the center of the cheese, so the entire product is "bad", not just the blue/green parts

Answer 5

It is not okay. the mold on blue cheese is(but is special)

hard cheeses can generally be salvaged but soft cheeses cannot. the toxins in the types of mold that grow on cheese are water soluble. so they can't travel far beyond the surface of harder cheeses due to lower moisture content.

soft cheese like brie, goat, or curdlike-ricotta, should never be eaten once mold appears.

soft cheese except blue cheese that are injected with mold, should be disgarded once they become slimy, softer than usual, and exhibit strange odor, colors.

remember there are different kinds of mold,,,mold on bread is not the same...

Answer 6

Hate to state the obvious but I think its more to do with the type of mould (its quite a big category)

Answer 7

because blue cheese has mould in it and cheese mould is edible
but any other foods mould is not

Answer 8

Actually I don't think eating mold is bad for you, it's just kind of gross, but my best guess is that cheese has gone through pastuerising (sorry, I know that's the wrong spelling!)

Answer 9

Is it, yuck! i wouldnt eat cheese with mould on it!

Answer 10

I don't eat moldy cheeses, (bleu, Roquefort, brie) and if there's mold on my cheese, I toss it and don't buy that kind again, because my family didn't like it enough to eat it.