"Bread mold is tricky. If you can see some mold spots, many more mold spores are present and not visible to the naked eye," Lorene Sauro, a nutritionist and food professional who is certified in health and food safety, shared with Food & Wine.
When one slice has visible mold, what you see is only the fruiting body of the mold. There will be small areas of mostly white mold. This is as much mold as the fruiting body that's visible. If one slice has mold, there will be small amounts of almost invisible mold. Throw the whole loaf away.
In most cases mold on bread is safe to eat but some people do get an allergic reaction (which rarely can cause fatal anaphylaxis), and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to get infections so the best thing to do is discard the moldy bread.
Yes, mould (or mold) can be invisible. When an item is visibly moldy, the visible part of the mold is actually the fruiting body. (You can think of a ``fruiting body'' like the flower on a plant. It's the structure that produces and distributes spores, much like flowers produce seeds.)
Flour should be just white, dry, powdery bits. Mold is more greenish, blue growths that you see on bread. If you take a slice of bread and you see some kind of greenish/blue spot on it, thats mold. Throw the bread in the trash immediately.
It should take around 7-10 days before you will be able to see significant growth on the bread. You could see growth as soon as 5 days depending on the type of bread you used. Remember, fresh bread will mold faster than store-bought bread containing preservatives.
If there's no mold on the bread, but it feels spongy or slimy when you touch it, that's usually a sign that the bread has gone bad and should be thrown out.
Can you have mold in your house and not see it? Yes, mold spores are tiny and invisible to the naked eye. They may be floating around your home without you knowing and grow on dark and damp surfaces where you're not expecting them to.
Healthy individuals generally won't get sick from eating a few bites of moldy food. “For the general population, it's not a big deal,” Worobo adds. However, in immunocompromised people, the mold can potentially colonize and result in fungal infections, so these individuals should be extra careful and avoid any mold.
In less severe cases, mold might not be that noticeable. Inspect the walls and check for mold on walls behind furniture and along baseboards. Mold can have different colors and textures, so be sure to recognize them.
If the food is porous (like bread) or moist (like jam), the surface mold you see has very likely permeated below the surface as well. Toss it out. There are a few exceptions, cases in which it's fine to remove the mold and eat the food.
To recap: As with bacteria, there's good mold and bad mold. Most of the time, bad mold isn't going to do much, but when it's bad, it's bad. So don't eat mold that wasn't put there on purpose, and if you do eat mold by accident, see a doctor if it makes you puke (or makes your body revolt against you in any other way).
As Sauro noted, "Mold in small amounts may not harm some people, but it can make others sick," making it a risk that feels a little too high to take. "If you see any signs of mold, throw out the bread," Sauro added.
The preservatives in bread shouldn't be that bad, as just some sorbic acid or postassium sorbate should be more than enough to prolong it's shelf life. The real key is in the storage of it and keeping it dry away from moisture.
But remember that food safety is very important, so if they have any mold on them, or smell bad, it's best to throw the entire packet away.
Q: How long after eating moldy bread will I get sick? If you end up getting sick from eating bad bread, it will happen within a few hours. Moldy bread can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms.
Can You Eat Mold on Soft Foods? The general rule is: If you find mold on soft foods—such as bread, fruits, and soft cheeses—throw it away in its entirety because mold spreads more easily in soft foods, says Poon. "Mold on your soft food has probably traveled much further than you can see," she explains.
Mold is common in many homes, and it can often go undetected until it becomes a serious issue. That's why everyone should be aware of the signs of mold growth in your home. This section will discuss the three main signs of mold: visible mold, musty odors, and health symptoms.
No, you only see part of the mold on the surface of food — gray fur on forgotten bologna, fuzzy green dots on bread, white dust on Cheddar, coin-size velvety circles on fruits, and furry growth on the surface of jellies. When a food shows heavy mold growth, “root” threads have invaded it deeply.
Visible Mold
The most common colors of mold are gray, black, and green, but mold can also be white, pink, blue, red, purple, brown—and sometimes a combination of colors. “As for textures, [mold] could be fuzzy, powdery, velvety, or slimy,” Rubino says.
Cutting off the mold you can see doesn't mean the bread without visible mold is safe to eat either. Since the root of the mold is deeply entrenched into the bread, with microscopic threads penetrated throughout, you can assume that there is a lot more mold than you can see. It is best to throw out the bread.
Place a bread slice in the ziplock bag and seal it. You may want to encourage bread microbes by adding moisture to the bag by putting a damp paper towel in the bag or spraying a bit of water in the bag. Set the bag aside, away from sunlight. Observe the bread slice carefully over time (5-9 days).
Rhizopus: This mold often appears as white or grayish fuzzy patches, eventually turning black. Penicillium: Known for its blue-green or yellow-green color, it can produce toxins harmful to humans. Aspergillus: This mold, which can be black, green, or brown, can produce toxins that can cause respiratory problems.