Throwing away food is a shame and makes us feel guilty. That’s why we’ve all been tempted to remove moldy areas from food and pretend nothing happened. However, in the end this can be worse for your health and here we explain why.
If there are so many moldy cheeses, like the famous Roquefort, it is logical to think that there is no problem in removing the fungal parts of the grated cheese and adding it to a good pasta. But be careful, because these are not the same type of mold.
The fungi that we find in cheeses such as Cabrales are controlled by their producers, even by laboratories, as explained by Luis Riera, technical director and food technologist at the consulting firm SAIA. However, the mold that grows on grated cheese or other cheeses (which came without fungi when purchased) is of unknown origin and it is not known what type of toxic substances harmful to health it may contain.
Many will think: “if I take out the bad part, surely there will be no problem.” But as Riera explains, “the fungus tells us that something is happening in the product.” Even if we remove it, it can generate aflatoxins (toxins released from it) and contaminate the rest of the food, so the recommendation is not to consume products that have developed mold.
For the rest, it can be harmful to our health not to follow these recommendations. As the food technologist explains, molds can cause mild poisoning with symptoms such as belly pain, vomiting and diarrhea, but they can also cause more serious damage if these toxins accumulate in the body in the long term, such as paralysis in very extreme cases or cancer.
Other experts point out, like Riera, the risks of consuming products with toxins. “The problem with molds is not in the visible part, but in mycotoxins, toxic substances produced by some fungi (Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium). Fungal spores are ubiquitous, they are found everywhere,” says Beatriz Robles. , dietician-nutritionist and food technologist in an interview with Comer la Vanguardia.
Indeed, when faced with foods with mold, “it is not enough to remove if a food has a lot of mold on the surface, since it will surely have penetrated deeply,” says in the report Sílvia Romero, nutritionist dietician, author of the blog Equilibra’t.
Therefore, whether it is grated cheese or other products such as jams, sauces or bread, if they are moldy, the best thing you can do to protect your health is to get rid of the product completely.
