Lighthearted thread ... Mouldy food

[glossyflower]

Am I unreasonable to think its ok to eat food past its best before date - as long as it looks/smells ok; or like with my breakfast this morning make toast to find the crusts have started to get mouldy but I just cut off the crusts and still ate it

Minger

Erm I'm sitting on the fence, if I did that its fine, it I went to my parents and discovered this I would chuck it in the bin in disgust!

Sorry, IF I went to my parents

I wouldn't. Mould is made up of microscopic spores, which are only visible when there are millions of them. The remaining piece of bread without visible mould probably still had many microscopic mould spores, just not enough to be visible. Also mould spores grow "root" threads into the food, so just cutting off the mouldy surface of the food may not help.

The spores produce chemical called mycotoxins, which are poisonous chemicals which make you feel sick.

This website explains in more detail about which foods are safe to eat if the mould is cut off, and which foods should be thrown away. Bread is a porous food, therefore it advises that mould bread is thrown away.

Ooh I retract that after reading frogspoon's post. Yuk.

I eat food past its sell by date all the time. I have the stomach of an ox !! But as soon as I see mould, I bin it.

I'm the same, I eat things that are on the turn all the time. I encourage, DC to do similar. I think its probably done me good over the years as I never get stomach issues.

Yuck yes frogs post is an eye opener but I haven't been sick yet!

On a different note, I've noticed that only shop bought bread goes mouldy but when I make my own it never grows mould just goes stale.

mould

i work on the theory that food doesn't know how many days past the best before/use by date it is, so unless there's mould it gets cooked and eaten.

oblomov you had to lower the tone didn't you?!

YABU. The very idea of it makes me want to vom . Very particular with what goes in my mouth .

I've done it

go to the love food hate waste website. loads of tips on using leftovers and what is or isn't ok to eat. You'll be surprised.

Anyone watch that thing with the sealed kitchen in a museum for a month? I always used to cut mouldy crusts off bread....never again. As mentioned, once mould is visible the spores are growing long tentacles through the middle of the slice.

I chuck mouldy bread.

I have been known to eat the non-mouldy parts of cheese lumps though, on the basis that stilton is just mould anyway. And I have had jam from under the mould too.

Lisas - yes I saw that documentary. The pig was something to watch.

No way. I have IBS as a result of food poisoning and my stomach is now too sensitive to food that is past its best. Mouldy bread gets chucked in the bin.

Big fan of ignoring best before dates. You look and sniff, if you see or smell anything that indicates the food's off, bin it!! That includes mould! Blurgh!

The problem with the sniff test is that it only detects bacterial spoilage. Foods that contain toxins aren't necessarily off and won't smell bad.

Bread I would chuck. I have been known to cut the mouldy end of cheese and eat other parts though.

I cut off the mouldy bit and eat the rest. Never done me any harm so far.

I chucked the rest of the mouldy bread away today

Itshothere . Very particular with what goes in my mouth .I bet you are ARF

When I used to eat bread (now am low carbing, I don't), I was happy enough to cut off the mouldy bits and eat the rest. After all, penicillin is a mould, isn't it? Sell by, best before and use before dates weren't around when I was starting to cook for myself, so I just used my nose, really, to tell if anything was off. I still do. Had norovirus last week and it was honestly the first time I can remember vomiting in 20 years. I think my nose must work quite well :D