When it’s okay to cut the mold off food and when it isn’t

Believe it or not, it’s okay to sometimes eat something that’s gone moldy. I know it’s gross and all, but mold isn’t the end of some of your favorite food items and today we’ll be looking at when it’s okay to slice a wee bit of a moldy piece of food off and still chow down.

Exploratorium.edu defines mold as the reaction a food or another type of matter has to the sudden appearance of spores (a singular-celled living organism that can reproduce without copulation); these spores are found in the air and can attach themselves to anything left out and found to be dampened with moisture.

Simple enough, right? Sure. That’s why when we leave fruit out it can ‘go bad’ as many would say, but there are people out there that eat mold purposefully. A nice chunk of gorgonzola (blue cheese) anyone?! Foodies pass that around like caviar, folks.

Turns out mold isn’t dangerous in some cases. In the case of the aforementioned blue cheeses, a type of mold known as penicillium is used. Sound familiar? Sure it does; it’s what’s derived to make penicillin, a popular antibiotic. However, that mold does not include harmful types of mold which include mycotoxins, as healthline.com states.

What if harmful mold attaches themselves to your food? Can you simply cut it away and chow down?

I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. Before I turned to a life of writing full-time, I worked a few odd jobs, and cooking was the one I feel back to most. One summer I had landed a job at a restaurant in Laval, Quebec, just north of my native Montreal. The restaurant was a little bit of a dive but the night life in Laval has always been pretty vivacious so to speak, so it did pretty well in the late hours. Burgers, pizza, sandwiches were usually served.

One day I was going through some of the stock in the walk-in fridge at the start of my shift. I was to prepare some charcuterie boards for a banquet that they were hosting that night—a birthday bash…some dude was turning 18 and his buds had planned a party.

Anyways, I was digging through the cheeses and cold cuts and by the time I reached the back of this particular shelf, my hand grasped a salami that at first looked okay, but when I drew it nearer to the light, I saw it was covered in mold.

Instinctively I dropped it back down onto the shelf. I may have let out a yelp, but let’s keep that between you and me, dear readers…the old honor code between reader and writer. I hold you to it my friends.

The chef, Pasquale, walked in at that point. I was still looking at the salami, grossed out. I mean, I always threw out moldy foods. I didn’t think they were safe.

“What’s up, kid?” Pasquale asked me.

“There’s a piece of moldy salami in there.”

“And so?” he said.

I looked at him, incredulous.

“Ah, kid. You have a lot to learn. Come with me.”

I followed him out of the walk-in and he brought the black and green salami to his cutting board and he proceeded to cut the mold off the salami, revealing the good portion underneath. “See, kid…good as new,” he said.

Truthfully, I wasn’t convinced but I did what I was asked and I included that salami on the platter I was preparing for the party. There were no incidents of food poisoning and the place is still opened—they even survived the pandemic as it turns out, so perhaps good old Pasquale was right and knew what he was doing.

But in the end the question remains: When is it okay to do as Pasquale did, and when is it not?

Well, as it turns out, a study has shown us just that…the answer to this particular dilemma.

According to a piece at insider.com, and an expert in food safety, Sylvia Anderson, it is perfectly okay to cut the mold off of some foods, but not all. She urges not to allow your knife or whatever instrument you’re using to cut off the mold to pass through any of the moldy parts, and to cut off at least an inch of the food product away.

According to her statements, safe foods to cut the mold away from include: vegetables, fruits of a firmer consistency, of course hard brick cheeses and salamis are okay, too (thanks Pasquale!).

The big shocker was jam preserves. According to Anderson, it’s okay to skim mold from the top of some preserves and consume what’s deeper in the jar. Her reasoning was that the sugar inside acts as a preservative which keeps the jam okay and the eater safe.

In the end, Yogurt and other dairy products of the sort cannot be salvaged from any amount of mold, sauces, even those in a jar…and bread is unadvisable, according to the aforementioned source.

How about you, dear readers? Even after what we’ve uncovered, would you be willing to eat any portion of any food after seeing some mold on its surface?