Question about Bread

[EarlJam]

If you are in possession of a slice of bread, and one corner is tainted with green mold but the rest of the slice looks, feels, and smells good enough to eat, is it safe to eat if you just pick off the moldy part?

This is a serious question.

-EarlJam

[hc5duke]

If it's brown, drink it down.
If it's black, send it back.

Wait, that doesn't help you... I've eaten plenty of moldy bread with the moldy part chopped off. With mixed results I might add.

[Clipsfan]

If it's brown, drink it down.
If it's black, send it back.

Wait, that doesn't help you... I've eaten plenty of moldy bread with the moldy part chopped off. With mixed results I might add.

What are the mixed results? You ever get sick?

Just cut off the moldy part and eat the rest. Especially if you're hungry.

[TNTDevil]

... for soft foods like breads- discard.

For hard foods like cheese- scrape/cut of the moldy part and consume as normal.

[hc5duke]

What are the mixed results? You ever get sick?

Just cut off the moldy part and eat the rest. Especially if you're hungry.

Yup, sick enough to make me wonder "why, oh why did I eat that bread?" but apparently not enough to stop myself from doing it again...

[wilson]

My general policy on almost-spoiled foods is "I spent four years in a frat house. This ain't gonna kill me."

Haven't had any problems yet.

[rthomas]

I always heard that the greenish/blue mold was related to penicillin. So I always bought a couple of loaves of Merita white bread, let it mold, then ate it when I suspected I had .... well, something after a date. Seems to have worked so far.

[The Gordog]

If you are in possession of a slice of bread, and one corner is tainted with green mold but the rest of the slice looks, feels, and smells good enough to eat, is it safe to eat if you just pick off the moldy part?

This is a serious question.

-EarlJam

I looked this up a while back. the scientists say that once part of it is moldy, the whole thing is probably shot through with it. However, I have never had a problem cutting off the mold and eating the rest - as long as the cut off part is pretty small, 10% or less I'd say.

[mehmattski]

I looked this up a while back. the scientists say that once part of it is moldy, the whole thing is probably shot through with it. However, I have never had a problem cutting off the mold and eating the rest - as long as the cut off part is pretty small, 10% or less I'd say.

This is correct... mold is of course a fungus, which goes through a specific life cycle: spores land on food, microscopic hyphae snake through the substance for maximum coverage, and then macroscopic mold begins to form- it is these macroscopic structures which produce new spores. Especially for something extremely porous like bread, it's probably got fungal hyphae all through it. This less true for harder foods like cheese, where the hyphae probably haven't made it to the side opposite the moldy part.

That said, the health problems that can be expected from eating moldy food is not nearly as dire as eating, say, spoiled meat or milk. But as anyone who's eaten a funky mushroom can tell you, bad fungus can be just as harmful as bad bacteria.

What the USDA has to say about moldy food.

[dball]

Whatever happened to David Gates?

[dukemomLA]

As kids we used to pick up any food item we dropped on the ground, brushed it off and ate it. We always just cut the mold off the ends of the bread and made a sandwich. We didn't go in for sour milk or meat that smelled bad, but anything else was fair game.

Isn't it amazing that a lot of us babyboomers don't get many colds, almost never have had a flu, don't often (if ever) get food poisoning, and don't get the trots from drinking the water in Mexico, Peru, or wherever. A little dirt (and yucky cod liver oil) went a long way.

Eat a little dirt, eat a little mold. Take a risk and stay healthy for life.

[Lavabe]

Whatever happened to David Gates?

Still alive, despite the Telly Savalas cover of IF.

Still around in my wife's album collection.
Cheers,
Lavabe

[JasonEvans]

Still alive, despite the Telly Savalas cover of IF.

Still around in my wife's album collection.
Cheers,
Lavabe

Yeah, when I saw the thread title my first thought was:

"If a picture paints a thousand words,
Then why cant I paint you?"

--Jason

[Karl Beem]

The yeasty beasties are your friends.

[Stray Gator]

Yeah, when I saw the thread title my first thought was:

"If a picture paints a thousand words,
Then why cant I paint you?"

--Jason

Heh. My first thought was:

"It Don't Matter To Me..."