Red Mold on Cheese – Finding mold growing around our living area is are a really common thing. Mold can easily grow everywhere, as long as the condition is pretty damp and nutritious for them to grow.
There are many types of mold you can find near your living area. One of these types is red mold. Just like its counterparts, red mold only possess danger if it covers large areas, particularly in houses’ structural parts.
The excessive growth of this mold may destroy these structural parts if it is not tackled immediately. Red mold also often occurs on food, particularly in bread and dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt. To give a better understanding of red mold occurrence on food, especially cheese, we will briefly elaborate on some facts about this mold.
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Red Mold on Cheese
Most types of mold, including red mold, only present negative effect to health for people with impaired health condition. This include people who are categorized as vulnerable groups, such as infant, toddlers, children, elderly, and people with allergy, respiratory problems, and compromised immune systems. For healthy people, normal occurrence of red mold generally does not present any health risk, even when it appears on food like cheese. You can still consume them without having too much effect on your body. The least responds your body will have are diarrhea and nausea, and these responds tend to be transient.
Red mold on blue cheese
Some cheeses do contains mold as part of its ingredient, such as Brie, Camembert, and Blue Cheese. The mold in these cheeses, however, is wanted, which is why you should be careful before judging whether a cheese has been spoiled. Blue Cheese has blue mold, which is why it is named as it is, while Brie and Camembert has white and soft mold. Even if you find red mold on Blue Cheese, it is better to examine it first before immediately throw it away. You can actually redeem the cheese by slicing out the part covered by mold and re-salt it with cheese salt.
If the red mold occurs on hard cheeses, make a solution of white vinegar and brine, and scrub or rub the mold off your cheese gently. If scrubbing or rubbing does not work, slice the covered area with knife and rinse the sliced area with the solution.
Red mold in cream cheese
Removing red mold in cream cheese and red mold on goat cheese is similar to Blue Cheese, depending on the state of the cheese. After you manage to remove the parts covered by red mold, you need to pay attention to several things to make sure the mold will not be coming back. First of all, you need to know why this mold occurs on your cheese. Some of the reasons are insufficient salting during the production, cross contamination between the cheese and other foods, damp cheese before aging process, bad air circulation, and poor sanitation during handling.
To avoid further damage from red mold, you need to make sure your cheese is stored in dry and cold place, such as refrigerator. Separate the cheese from raw food materials to avoid cross contamination. Make sure to purchase cheese that has gone through controlled productions. Maintaining air circulation in your refrigerator and using clean hands to process the cheese are also very important to make sure your cheese will not be spoiled before its expired date.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finding red mold on cheese is very common, and generally consuming them will not present any serious health risk unless you have compromised health condition or belong to vulnerable groups. You can still save your cheese despite having red mold in it by slicing the parts covered by mold and re-salt it (for soft cheese) or soak your cheese with white vinegar and brine solution, and rub it gently (for hard cheese). Store your cheese in dry and cold space to avoid further unwanted mold growth after removal.
