I think I've eaten some mouldy bread, will this make me unwell?

[Redsparkleydeeleyboppers]

I will start by saying I do have terrible health anxiety and have suffered from daily IBS for a very long time. My digestive system rules my life, it's never well no matter what I do to help it and I'm always on edge regarding food and my symptoms.

Anyhow, I purchased a milk loaf for my daughter the other day, well within date.

I am normally wheat/gluten free to try to help my gut issues. I'm not coeliac so do eat foods containing wheat and gluten occasionally and last night I felt peckish and so ate 4 slices as a snack (they are small slices).

This morning I felt the need to have another slice, just pulled one out of the bag and noticed it had some mould on it, I pulled out the rest of the loaf to find more mould. Now I'm having a major panic attack about becoming ill.

How likely am I to become unwell after consuming this? I didn't notice it last night but tbh I was eating and watching TV so now questioning if I even looked. Surely I'd have seen it when I was buttering the bread? I honestly can't remember if I looked. I usually inspect my food all the time (I know I have issues and I have tried to seek out help but still struggling). Could the mould have developed overnight?

I have such a lot of stress on right now and the though of feeling more unwell than I already do is pushing me over the edge.

Yes, the mould could have developed overnight. You’ll be fine if it wasn’t mouldy when you ate it. Even if it was, you’ll still be fine. If you ate it last night and you’re fine now, there’s no problem.

Mould like that usually tastes a bits strange so you would have known if you ate any mould. You will fine even if you did manage to eat some of the mould but it's really unlike that you did.

Thank you, I hope so. I know that I'm panicking but I've been under so much stress recently and the smallest things push me over the edge.

Try not to panick - I’m sure you’d have seen that when you pulled it out to eat.
also as a side note I keep my bread loaf in the fridge especially in this hot weather as I read somewhere it keeps fresher for longer.

I also avoid yellow sticker bread!

Oh sweetheart. The PP is right - bread mould tastes sort of dusty, you'd have known at the time. It wouldn't have done you any harm if you had, but it doesn't sound like you have.

As PP also said, the fridge might help (never tried it) but it also freezes well - you can get the slices out you need for the next day at night and poo them in a sandwich bag. But honestly, it's probably the heat - once it eases things will keep longer

Thanks, I honestly don't recall seeing it last night, if I did I'd have obviously thrown it away. I am usually quite fastidious over my food hygiene but I was feeling knackered and overwhelmed last night so now I'm wondering if I may have overlooked it.

It tasted ok, I think.

You will be fine love. 💐

I really hope I would have noticed it last night.

Tbh, we rarely eat bread, I hardly consume it, my dc don't eat it and DH keeps his in the freezer.

Just hoping it developed overnight 🤞

Oh dear. It was really nice knowing you OP. 💀
You'll be absolutely fine, don't be daft.

Thank you.DH always keeps his in the freezer and just gets out a couple of slices for his lunch. I never usually buy bread but saw this milk loaf the other day and it reminded me of my childhood so I grabbed a bag. That'll teach me not to purchase food from B&M ever again lol!

@Redsparkleydeeleyboppers
please try to just move on from it , you would have noticed it I’m sure.
I’m sorry this is giving you so much anxiety - hopefully 🤞 as today goes along you’ll feel better about it all x

😂

In this heat it can very easily develop over night. You’ll be fine either way though. I think you’d have noticed unless it was a tiny speck which definitely wouldn’t do any harm anyway

Sympathies, emetophobe and fellow IBS sufferer here. I don't know how strong your sense of smell/taste is, but personalIy I can TASTE mould the moment it's in my mouth! I'm pretty sure you'd have tasted it, it tastes like it smells.

But in any case - a morsel of that kind of mould won't hurt you, it won't make you ill. You'll be fine.

I remember being quite heartened on a thread on here years ago, about someone's DH who took a pack of sausages out of the dustbin, well past their use-by and visibly either mouldy or discoloured, cooked them up and ATE THEM. He was fine. 🤣

Thank you. I'm trying hard to think rationally. My default mode these days js panic which is ridiculous, I know!

You’ll be fine. I actually on purpose ate bread like this yesterday. I just chucked away the mouldy slices and made my sandwich with the ones with no visible mould. It’s fine, do it all the time. I also have gut issues and causes me no problems. You’ll probably feel worse for being wheat-free and then suddenly chowing down on 4 slices of toast than you would for eating a bit of mould!

As long as the mould is green and not black, you’ll be fine. You could eat a whole loaf covered in green mould and still be fine.

Crikey lol, I wish I had guts if iron like that.

Thank you, I have emetophobia too and have made myself feel really quite nauseous 🙄 I am my own worst enemy at times (well, my mind is which I'm sure is out to destroy me!).

OP, you are absolutely not going to be ill from eating bread that had little bit of mould on it, but you almost certainly didn’t eat bread with mould on it anyway.

Also, mould like that appears very rapidly. So if you ate some yesterday and then it was mouldy today, it wouldn’t have been mouldy when you ate it.

Mould and fungus can literally overnight. It’s not a gradual thing. For example, whole perfectly formed little toadstools grow in damp lawns in a matter of hours overnight.

If it helps: I’ve eaten mouldy bread by accident many times and a) I’ve never once been unwell from it and b) I’ve always been able to taste the mouldy bits, so if you didn’t taste anything amiss you almost certainly ate no mould anyway.

Thank you so much for putting my mind at ease.

I'm usually a very level headed woman with 53 years of life experience but as soon as my brain switches over to panic mode all sense of rational thinking evaporates and leaves me a gibbering wreck - urgh!