A typical issue individuals have is the result of eating food that is musty. This happens when you are not focusing on what you are eating and all of a sudden recognize that you simply consumed half a sandwich made with bread that has some mold on it.
The short answer is no, you’re most likely not going to pass away from eating mold; you’ll digest it like any other food, and as long as you’ve got a fairly healthy immune system, the most you’ll experience is some queasiness or vomiting due to the taste/idea of what you’ve simply consumed.
What Happens If You Eat Mold?
That stated, this things is absolutely bad for you, and if you’re allergic to mold, it can cause uncomfortable symptoms consisting of inflammation of the eyes, nose, and throat.
What’s more, although typical bread mold isn’t really specifically damaging, there are some dangerous molds out there which can be detrimental to your health. In reality, a few of them can produce poisonous substances known as mycotoxins, the nastiest of which (aflatoxin) can cause cancer according to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).
That stated, contamination tends to happen farther up the chain than your cooking area, mainly appearing in grain and nut crops, so your routine family mold most likely isn’t aflatoxin-related.
Side Effects of Eating Mold
It’s not unusual for people to inadvertently ingest stagnant food that might be growing green or invisible bacterial spores. The symptoms of mold intake can be glaringly obvious but, in the long run, stay reasonably harmless if they’re not persistent.
- The most common symptom of mold ingestion is digestive problems, such as severe abdominal cramps, relentless diarrhea, dehydration, queasiness, or an overall upset stomach.
- Many symptoms will appear within 10 to 24 hours of consuming musty food.
- Acids discovered in the stomach typically have the capability to counter any type of major attack caused by mold ingestion. Nevertheless, those experiencing relentless symptoms– particularly children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with a compromised immune system– should look for immediate medical attention.
- While a lot of cases of mold intake stay reasonably harmless, the seriousness of the scenario can intensify if the mold enters the blood stream. In this instance, symptoms may include upper respiratory problems, fever, and basic malaise.
Cannot You Simply Cut the Mold off Your Food?
Although it may be tempting to simply detach the moldy bits in the interest of not losing food, there’s no guarantee you’re in fact getting rid of the entire fungal infection by doing so.
- Mold’s thread-like roots can reach deep into the food in concern, so just getting rid of the clearly nasty parts will not do. Much better to err on the side of cutting off excessive than insufficient– or better yet, simply toss the entire thing out.
- To clear things up, the USDA has a food-handling chart detailing which foods can safely be pruned, and which must simply be discarded.
Does not Toasting Your Bread Eliminate the Mold?
No, actually, not necessarily: although you can technically eliminate mold by exposing it to heats, you most likely will not reach those temperature levels without burning the living shit from your bread– as well as then, there’s no ensuring it worked.
Plus, even if you do not mind the taste of charred bread, you’ll likely still have a remaining mold flavor on your toast. Why not just get fresher bread?
What about Moldy Cheese?
Some cheeses (like Gorgonzola) do have mold cultures purposefully added to them, although these particular molds are actually not able to produce mycotoxins.
Setting aside those intentionally infected cheeses, various types of cheese will require various handling when mold exists: moldy hard and semi-soft cheeses can be cut without worry, however musty soft cheeses should be scrapped completely.
How Can You Prevent Mold from Forming?
Simple steps to prevent mold development include securely covering foods in the fridge (with cling wrap or containers), eating leftovers within 4 days, and not leaving disposable food out for more than two hours.
Crucial though, is to be sensible about how much food you eat during the week: if you live alone, you’re probably not going to finish a whole loaf of bread prior to mold shows up.
Health Tips
If you are allergic to it, then you probably shouldn’t have eaten it. However, we’ll disregard that because if you are actually adverse “mold” than you currently understand what to do or not do.
Mold is typically not bad for you (some molds are even great for you, or otherwise enhance food, as in those expensive smelly French cheeses). If you ate mold, simply don’t fret. If you feel sick then maybe the mold is a problem, but probably it isn’t.
Bear in mind, being less concerned with mold than one instantly may uses generally to mold that was not enough in amount or yuckiness to observe it before you took a bite, as well as during the biting procedure. To puts it simply, this does not necessarily apply to cases such as the above illustrated bread.
The problem is easy: If the food is moldy, then it may be old and otherwise infected with bacteria and things that is not good for you. If you are in a high risk group for such things, or pregnant and trying to prevent listeria, and so on, then you might want to prevent old rotten food, and the mold itself, while not damaging, is a hint that the food is old.
As a general guideline, soft food is more risky if it is moldy, while hard food (like hard cheese) can be tidied up by scraping or slicing away the moldy part.
