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Moldy bread – can you eat it?
And will it be suitable for food if you cut off the moldy crust from it?
“All covered with greenery, absolutely all,” – a famous song is recalled when you see bread lying in a locker. And okay, when its pitiful remains were covered with mold. But throwing out a whole loaf is somehow a pity – in the current rainy weather, greens grow on bread very quickly.
“And don’t throw it away! – the thrifty aunt advises me. – Well this is real penicillin! Well, or cut off the crust, if you disdain. “
But, as it turned out, not every mold has earned the right to be called penicillin (the world’s first antibiotic created from the molds Penicillium notatum). And even more so, not all mold is suitable for nutrition. So why is moldy cheese okay but moldy bread not?
Types of mold
For gourmet cheeses – Dorblu, Brie, Camembert – safe types of mold are used, in which there are no harmful substances. This mold itself, due to its antibacterial properties, is capable of destroying harmful microbes. However, Roskachestvo experts warn: even such a “cultural” mold can cause an allergic reaction to microbial protein in people with a predisposition to it.
The mold that affects bread is of a completely different kind, and it appears on its own, and not because it was conceived by the technologists. Plaque on spore-infected bread can be not only green, but also white, gray, yellow, bluish and even black. The most poisonous are yellow mold (Aspergillus flavus) and black mold (Aspergillus fumigatus).
Where does the mold come from?
Microscopic mold spores are in the air – on the street, at home, in the office, at work. When they get to the surface, they need warmth and moisture to reproduce. Ideal for mold – sliced wheat bread, tightly wrapped in polyethylene. Infection of such a product occurs within 40 hours if stored improperly. Rye bread also grows moldy, but in this case the process can take up to XNUMX hours. Even crackers, dryers, breadsticks and crispbreads can become covered with a fluffy bloom.
Cut or discard?
It is not enough to simply remove the visible part of the mold colony from the surface of the bread. So do not listen to your particularly thrifty relatives and send moldy bread to the trash can. And that’s why.
– By the time a “colored colony” visible to the eye appeared on the surface of the product, the mycelium (mycelium) had already sprouted inside the bread. This is easy to see if you examine the moldy piece under a microscope.
In most cases, in healthy people, mold can cause intestinal upset – loose stools, abdominal discomfort, which does not always require treatment. Moldy foods can pose a serious threat to a weakened human immune system. Ultimately, this can lead to dysfunctions of the damaged organ, to systemic intoxication, up to fungal sepsis and death.
Microscopic fungi can be in the body, waiting for favorable conditions for their pathogenic activity. Therefore, if you notice mold on food, get rid of it immediately.
Carefully treat the place where the moldy food was lying with antiseptic solutions. Ethyl alcohol, chlorhexidine, and other drugs will do. Certain types of fungi can form in spores that get onto fresh food. Therefore, the processing should be more intensive.
How to protect bread from mold
Store bread in a dry, dark place. For example, in a bread bin. In the area of the stove and window, the greatest fluctuations in temperature and humidity are ideal conditions for mold. Therefore, keep the bread bin away from these areas.
If the bread is stored in a bag, do not place it on the window. Condensation will start to form inside the package in direct sunlight. It is better to transfer the bread to a paper bag or cloth bag after purchasing.