💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 1462.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 08:03:44. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-05)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
2009-09-13 06:48:15
Monday, June 5, 2006
It's a pretty common occurrence for people to find a corner of mould growing on
their block of cheese, or slice of bread at home, to cut off that affected
spot, and continue consuming the remainder, believing that they've gotten rid
of the contamination.
But is it safe to do so? Let's find some answers.
Before the test, Leila takes her mouldy-looking cheese sandwich to Dr Ailsa
Hocking, one of Australia's leading experts in the field of mould.
Dr Hocking is a little worried, and there's a reason for that. Mould is a
growth of minute fungi which typically forms on food which has been left alone
for too long.
But what if Leila were to just cut off the mouldy bits she can see? There is
still risk: as the cheese has a lot of mould and varying sorts of mould, the
mould can make toxics that diffuse into the cheese. So while it might look safe
and not mouldy there might still be toxins in the food.
So after allowing a loaf of bread, a jar of jam, and block of hard cheese to go
partly mouldy, Leila removes the mouldy portion then it's off to the testing
lab to find out what is lurking in Leila's food.
The food is tested for:
A sample of each food is tested fresh to be used as a comparison.
The aim of the test is to find out whether or not the remainder of the food
contains mould/microorganism activity if the mouldy portion is removed.
So can we cut the mould off cheese and still eat it? And how much mould is
actually in a sandwich once the mouldy portion has been removed?
The lab results (and mouldy sandwich) are taken back to Dr Hocking.
At Leila's first visit, after removing the mouldy parts from her cheese
sandwich, mould spores were present in the rest of the sandwich, but they
hadn't yet started to grow.
They sure have grown at an alarming rate!
So how much mould is in it? The lab reports said there were about 300,000
moulds per gram. The normal amount for a cheese sandwich is less than 200
moulds per gram. The mould in the food left in the fridge for too long has
multiplied more than a thousand times.
Therefore contaminating anything it is put near.
"In the past when I've chopped the mould off my bread and eaten the rest I've
been eating these things ... I don't think I'm going to do that anymore," says
Leila.
Cutting mould off food in the fridge is a really bad idea. Therefore if there's
any mould anywhere on your food, the best place for it is in the bin.
It is possible to remove the mould from some foods and eat the remainder
without harm, however, to do so does pose some risk in most cases and is
therefore not advised.
Dr Hocking: "The problem with mould toxins is they don't make you sick straight
away like bacterially toxins. Like food poisoning, they can be longer acting,
they can be carcinogenic and so while it may be fine, it may not make you sick,
it's probably not good to do this sort of thing on a frequent basis because
every time you are exposed to a carcinogen you have a greater chance of
eventually developing some sort of problem."
cheese? It's because jam has a very high concentration of sugar, but a low
water content. On the other hand, tomato paste will only keep a week or two as
it's got a high water content but freezing it will make it last longer.
case of good mould versus bad mould. A very small amount of penicillin
rochefort (yes, that's what we make antibiotics from) is mixed into a thousand
litres of cheese. This will produce enough live spores in the milk so that when
the blue cheese is punctured later in its life, all those spores will grow into
the little veins that grow through the cheese.
--- Mobile internet site for reading on mobile phones, smartphones, small
screens and slow internet connections. ---http://mpggalaxy.mine.bz/www/BB/
mobile_news/threads/index_last.html
Posted: 2009699@426.21
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
stranger
Student diet 101: Don't eat mold
temperature
By Madison Park
CNN
(CNN) -- As college students enter the halls of elite education and higher
learning, here is one piece of advice: Learn from the caveman.
"How the caveman worked, he'd check stuff out -- the look and smell of it,"
said Jeff Nelken, a food safety expert, about suspicious foods. "You have a
sense of smell and taste, a radar system that tells you that the food is not
fresh."
A survey of more than 4,000 college students published in 2008 in the Journal
of the American Dietetic Association found that "young adults, particularly
white men, engage in risky eating behaviors" by consuming undercooked animal
products, which carry risks of illness.
College students aren't generally known for healthy eating. Busy schedules and
tight budgets -- and sometimes a lack of knowledge about food -- can result in
not-the-greatest choices. Outside the dining halls, the college student diet
may rely heavily on ramen noodles, beer, cereal and leftovers. Today, a few
food experts offer advice on ways to balance health and frugality, since many
students are new to the kitchen and crunched for cash.
Can I cut the mold off the bread/cheese and eat the rest?
It's tempting to lop off the fuzzy patch, but the mold could have spread
already.
"Once you're able to see mold on bread, it means there's quite a lot of mold,"
said Nelken, a food consultant in Woodland Hills, California. "It's indicative
that there's mold on other slices, just not at the level you can see it. Why
jeopardize your health on a slice of bread?"
Nelken likened mold to jellyfish. "Even though you scrape off the head of the
jellyfish, the tentacles are still in the food product."
Eating moldy bread could cause an upset stomach. Although most molds are
innocuous, it's probably not going to taste good, food experts said. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends
discarding moldy bread and baked goods, because of their porous texture.
Creamy dairy products like yogurt can easily spread mold and should be
discarded. Soft cheeses with high moisture content -- including those that are
shredded, sliced, or crumbled -- can be contaminated with both mold and
bacteria. So throw those away, experts advise.
Hard cheeses can be saved, as long as the mold is cut 1 inch around the spot.
Because of the cheese's hardness, the mold generally cannot penetrate deep into
the product. Complete chart of USDA's guide on moldy food.
To save food and money, consider freezing food items to keep them longer, or
buy the item in smaller amounts.
Do dry packaged foods like ramen or boxed macaroni and cheese last forever?
"Forever is a long time, but these products will last for some time," wrote
Linda Harris, a researcher who focuses on microbial food safety at the
University of California-Davis. "The quality will be affected by long-term
storage. The flavors may change over time. The texture of the noodles might not
be as good but they won't become unsafe."
Most dehydrated products have a "Best If Used By" date, recommended for best
flavor or quality. Food experts say it's not dangerous to eat a product after
the "Best If Used By" date, but it could taste different or stale.
Would a hungry college student searching for a cheap, convenient meal notice?
That would be "highly variable depending upon storage conditions, age, product
and taste sensitivity of the student," Harris said.
The pizza from last night has been sitting out on the counter. Can I eat it for
breakfast?
The USDA advises no, saying that perishable foods should not be left out for
more than two hours. Anything left at room temperature for longer should be
discarded.
"Fridges were invented for a reason," said Sam Beattie, a food safety extension
specialist at Iowa State University. "They work well to keep food cold. It
slows the growth of these illness-growing microorganisms."
Leaving a box of pizza out overnight and grazing on it the next morning is
something that "I think we've all done," Nelken said. "You don't hear people
getting ill from leftover pizza."
But he said to steer clear of left-overnight pizza with exotic ingredients such
as smoked salmon or grilled eggplant because of bacteria.
Should I drink milk after its use-by date? What about eggs?
Drinking milk a day or two after its use-by date shouldn't be an issue. But if
you notice changes in flavor, consistency, smell -- don't take any chances,
Nelken said.
For eggs, the USDA recommends using within three to five weeks of the date of
purchase. The "sell-by" date will usually expire by then, but the eggs are safe
to use.
Eggs and milk should be stored in the coldest areas of the refrigerator, not on
the door, since it's four to five degrees warmer there.
Raw chicken always smells funny. How do I know if it's gone bad?
It'll smell a lot more gamy, said Beattie, an assistant professor for food
safety in Ames, Iowa. This means it'll give off an odor -- stronger than when
you first bought it at the grocery store.
Store chicken in the freezer or use refrigerated chicken within three days
after purchase. Beyond that, spoilage organisms will get into the chicken and
it will start emitting an unpleasant smell, Beattie said.
Invest in a cooking thermometer to make sure that meat has been cooked
thoroughly, rather than relying on visual cues.
Wash your hands frequently with warm water and soap to avoid transmitting
E.coli and salmonella.
Should I drink the water after the expiration date has passed on the bottle?
"What happens with water is absolutely nothing," Beattie said. Water is safe to
drink even past its expiration date (as long as there's no leakage in the
bottle), but the water may taste different.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, bottled water is considered to
have an indefinite safety shelf life if it is produced and stored properly.
While the federal agency does not require an expiration date for bottled water,
many manufacturers elect to put expiration dates.
"What happens is that people feel more comfortable with bottled water with a
code date," Beattie said. "There is no safety factor beyond that. Manufacturers
feel that quality of water may deteriorate or become more neutral."