Is mold on cheddar cheese safe to eat? | Cooking aid

Since the blue part of blue cheese is moldy and safe to eat, is it okay to eat other cheeses, like cheddar, if it has mold? Peter, Whitestone, Devon

The thing, Peter, is that cheese is basically mold. Let's take your example of blue: yes, the blue pieces are moldy, but so are the whites. What we're really talking about here is intentional mold versus mold growing on cheese, and for that, Paxton & Whitfield Cheese Buyer Dan Bliss suggests thinking of your cheese as a box of Petri: “It's alive with mold, no matter what kind of cheese it is, and creates an environment where other mold wants to grow. These molds are not necessarily going to harm you, but they could affect the taste of the cheese. "If it's surface mold, it's fine to cut it out, but if it's started to seep into the taste of the cheese, whether it's a hard cheese or a soft, it's usually time to say goodbye." As Max Melvin, senior cheese maker and head of education at La Fromagerie notes, "If something is so awful you can't get near your face, you probably wouldn't want to eat it anyway." /p>< p class="dcr-3jlghf">Red molds and "anything too actively yellow" are best avoided, Bliss advises, while "grays, blues, and whites" can be muted at a few millimeters from the mold surface. But don't scratch it: "You can see the most active stuff [where it bloomed], but scratching can spread it to the face of the cheese. It's better to cut it and stop this process. The same can be said for that chewy mold on a cut camembert or brie.

Cheddar can form mold near the rind as well as on the surface." You might get cracks characteristics in cheese," Melvin says, "that air can get in, and a blue mold similar to the kind that grows in blue cheese can start to form." To some, that's, uh, a new (many Melvin's customers specifically ask for it), while others don't like the flavor. That's a different story with cream cheese though: "If you have mold on it, that's an indication not to go any further," says Bliss, who recommends eating ricotta and mozzarella ella within days of opening. .

Other cut cheeses will generally keep for about 10 days, but storage is essential. "You want to create a sealed environment, but you don't want your cheese to sweat too much," says Bliss, who wraps it in wax paper (or parchment paper) and stores it in a plastic container in the refrigerator at "here. below". 8C”. You can also put a sugar cube in it to suck out excess moisture, "rather than creating condensation in the box or on the cheese".

Having says it all, "contamination is a game of probability," says Melvin. "Cheese is generally low risk, but obviously some are less risky than others." Young children, the elderly, pregnant women, or people with compromised immune systems should “generally stick to hard cheeses and be more cautious about mold and shelf life.” As in life, however, manage your own risk: "The French have been doing it pretty well with moldy cheese for centuries."

Have a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com