Can I eat cheese which has been "infected" with blue cheese mold?
Recently, I bought two pieces of cheese - St. Agur and Pyrenean cheese. They were cut from wheels, not pre-packaged. At home, I removed the foil and placed them in the same plastic container in the fridge.
Two days later, the Pyrenean cheese had some mold with bluish tinge on the surface. I assume the seller has stored the cheese properly, so it shouldn't have gone moldy by itself in the short time in my fridge. I think that the benign mold from the blue cheese colonized the Pyrenean cheese. Still, I decided not to risk eating it (I still ate the blue cheese).
Is this what really happened? If it happens again, can I assume that it is edible mold? Is it safe to eat edible mold after it has colonized another type of cheese, or will the changed food prompt it to produce dangerous byproducts?
Also, could I have prevented it by having the cheeses individually wrapped in foil inside the same container, or would only keeping in different containers stop mold propagation?
Best Answer
Well, first off, mold grows from spores, and your Pyrenean cheese was likely already "contaminated" with Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium glaucum, and Penicillium candidum spores at the cheese shop (it'd be surprising if the cheese shop isn't covered with them!). So, if you keep it in a environment habitable to them, they will grow. I suspect that you'd get the same results even if you put them in two different plastic containers.
As to its safety, if it was indeed one of the used-in-food Penicillium molds, it should be safe to eat—you can make sheep's milk blue cheeses (e.g., roquefort) after all. But the problem is that the same humid environment that encouraged the Penicillium colonization also encourage other molds—many of which you don't want to eat. Also, I'm pretty sure there are blue-green molds you don't want to eat.
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Can you eat cheese with blue mold?
Blue and soft-ripened cheeses are grown with specific molds and safe to eat. However, if mold appears on soft, shredded, sliced, or crumbled varieties, you should discard them immediately. Meanwhile, hard cheeses like Parmesan, Swiss, and Cheddar can be salvaged by cutting away the molded area.What happens if you eat moldy blue cheese?
Consuming spoiled blue cheese can cause food poisoning, which causes symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps ( 5 , 6 ). Certain types of mold also produce mycotoxins, which are toxic compounds that can suppress immune function, cause digestive distress, and even contribute to cancer ( 1 ).Can you safely eat cheese from a block that has molded?
Mold generally can't penetrate far into hard and semisoft cheeses, such as cheddar, colby, Parmesan and Swiss. So you can cut away the moldy part and eat the rest of the cheese. Cut off at least 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) around and below the moldy spot.What should I do if I ate moldy cheese?
Most likely, you'll be okay.\u201d However, in certain cases, the mold found on spoiled food could be dangerous, so if you suddenly develop symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea, an elevated temperature or diarrhea, you should immediately seek medical help.Can I eat blue cheese if allergic to penicillin?
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Answer 2
Even if your pyrenean cheese was'n contaminated in the shop, you put it in a closed vessel (so high humidity environment) with blue cheese, both unwrapped. That would be more than enough to seed the pyrenean cheese with the blue mold from the St.Agur, and it will be happy to grow...
And while that mold is safe to eat (I'd have no problem with it), you might not want the taste of teh blue cheese in yiur pyrenean.
(By the way, while Penicillium roqueforti and similar molds are safe when growing on cheese, they are not safe when growing on e.g. bread!)
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Engin Akyurt, Daniel Reche, Klaus Nielsen, Pixabay