Moldy Dos and Don’ts
When you find a little mold on food, it can seem like it can be salvaged because mold doesn’t cover it all up. It seems like a logical step, doesn’t it? It turns out that this is not the case for many products, such as bread, because mold can lurk deep on the surface, where it is not visible.
Moldy bread seems to be easy to eat. You can see it, cut it off and continue your day as if nothing had happened. However, since mold is a type of fungus, it has a root network that is invisible to the naked eye. This means that it penetrates food much deeper than you can see. However, particularly with bread, if the mold is concentrated on one end of the loaf, you can still eat the other end, but any slices nearby are likely to suffer anyway. For other products, it depends on several factors.
In an interview with NPR, Marianne Gravely, Senior Technical Information Officer, USDA, puts it this way:
Soft fruits, meats, and jams also need to be thrown away when they get moldy, she adds, but for those mourning wrecked croissants, the good news is that tough foods can be disposed of even after they’ve gotten fungus. Hard cheeses, salami and vegetables such as carrots, bell peppers and kale have a tougher surface, making it harder for mold roots to penetrate. This will help remove mold from the surface before it ruins the interior of the product. For these products, Gravely recommends cutting out the mold with a clean knife, leaving 1 inch buffer on each side of the fuzzy area.
The fact is that most of the products just need to be thrown away. Throw away cooked food, yogurt, soft fruits, bread, sliced bread, or anything in the jar. Vegetables with a harder skin can survive this mold, although I personally cannot remember a single time in my life that I have ever seen mold on carrots or bell peppers. If you are allergic to mold, it’s best to skip all of this altogether, as you can breathe in those mold spores without even realizing it.