(ORDO NEWS) — This has happened to many people: you are going to make a sandwich, you start cutting bread and you notice a small spot of mold on it.
How do people usually act in this situation? Just cut off the moldy area and continue to make a sandwich with the rest of the bread. But how harmless is it?
There are many different types of mold that can grow on food. The most common are Aspergillus and Penicillium , as well as Botrytis , which can be seen on strawberries.
Mold is a fungus, some of which produce poisonous substances called mycotoxins. Some of the most poisonous are aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus in cereals, spices and tree nuts.
Aflatoxins can lead to cancer and also damage the liver. True, most mycotoxins are dangerous only if a person eats them for a long time.
So why not just cut off the mold?
Rachelle Williams, chairwoman of the Food Safety Information Council, answered this question in a very simple and understandable way in an interview with the Huffington Post .
“The easiest way to think about mold is to think about wood. “Most of the tree is not always above the ground – it is below.
What you see is the part at the top, when you think of the roots, they go deep into the ground and can actually be larger than what is seen from above.
Then the same goes for mold, when you cut off a piece of mold, the ‘roots’ are still in the food, ” Williams explained.
It is also important to note that mold can grow in the refrigerator and even survive freezing. Mold often survives in salty, sweet, and acidic environments.
In addition, most mold toxins are heat-resistant and therefore cannot be destroyed during the cooking process.
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