Let’s say you don’t properly store and refrigerate a bologna sandwich, and decide
to go back to it a week later. Tastes a little funny, but you think nothing of it. Until later,
when you’re dealing with headaches, memory loss, nosebleeds, aches and pains,
and even changes in mood. You’ve come down with a nasty case of mycotoxicosis, and you got it
from ingesting mold. And yet, treating yourself to a slice of blue cheese - which is brimming
with a mold known as Penicillium Roqueforti - is considered perfectly safe. Classy, even!
So, what’s with the double standard? Why can moldy cheese make you look refined, and moldy bread,
or mold in your home, make you seriously sick? And come to think of it, what even is mold? What are
the different varieties? What effect can different kinds of mold have on your body? And what mold
myths and misinformation are lurking out there? That’s exactly what we’re going to find out.
First question: What is mold? It’s a term that’s thrown around a lot,
but rarely properly explained. Typically, it’s associated with filth, grime, and decay,
and there’s some truth to this. But unlike your typical dirt, Mold is very much alive.
It’s a fungus, much like yeast or mushrooms, and it can grow pretty much anywhere. This includes
plants, wood, fabric, soil, food, drywall, floors, and ceilings. While you’re probably
used to encountering this pesky fungus in your home, it serves a much wider function in nature
as a kind of natural recycling system - it plays a crucial role in the decay of organic matter.
Without mold, we’d all be knee deep in dead plants, animals, and people.
What does mold look like? How can you recognize it? It’s important
to note that if you can actually see mold, you’re looking at a sizable colony of it.
Mold exists on a microscopic level and grows in clusters, until these clusters become large enough
to be visible to the human eye. The physical size of a mold colony is referred to as its
“fungal biomass.” Molds will appear as spots or smears in the colors black,
blue, and green. These colors can depend on factors like the source of the mold’s nutrition,
or the age of the colony in question. Mold often gives off a musty, stale odor, too, so if you seem
to be noticing strange smells around your home or on your food, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Molds aren’t a monolith either, with over 100,000 different species across the globe.
These can be organized into some wider categories that we’ll break down for you later - especially
the most dangerous ones! - but all these species have certain qualities in common,
like the way they reproduce. Molds, like almost all fungi, reproduce asexually - meaning,
with themselves rather than with a partner - by releasing spores.
Anyone who’s played the popular The Last of Us game series, wherein the world is
taken over by a zombifying cordyceps fungus, knows that spores are not to be messed with.
These are single-celled reproductive units, invisible to the human eye,
that drift through the air in hopes of landing in a new place suitable for colony growth.
This is how, when left to its own devices,
mold can spread fast and take over buildings - leading to horrifying results like these:
If that sent a chill down your spine, you’re probably wondering:
What exactly are the ideal conditions for mold, and how can I avoid them?
We’re sorry to inform you that the most basic requirements for mold growth are oxygen, moisture,
and some source of nutrients - all of which are present pretty much anywhere. Temperatures between
40 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit are also known to be the sweet spot for unchecked mold growth.
These rules are the same whether we’re talking about mold growth on food or around the home,
though of course, it’s a lot easier to throw out moldy food than fix a moldy home.
Let’s look a little closer at the factors that make your home ripe for a total mold takeover.
First, nutrients - mold can feed off of wood,
drywall, and fabrics, making most places in your home susceptible to fungal invasion. Next,
moisture - here’s a scary fact: Mold growth sets in 24 to 48 hours after initial water intrusion,
so things can get real bad, real fast. How can water intrude, often without you even noticing it?
Here are just a few examples: Condensation, such as on windows or in your bathroom after showering,
leaks from damaged roofing, leaky plumbing, poor ventilation, or even high environmental humidity.
Bathrooms, basements, and attics are often particularly susceptible to mold,
so that’s where you’ll want to keep an eye if you want to nip this situation in the bud.
However, while you’re watching like a hawk for potential fungal threats, it’s worth noting that
there’s another common household phenomenon that’s often linked to mold: Mildew. Mildew
is a term often generically used for various types of mold, but the technical difference is a little
more specific. Some describe mildew as “early stage” mold, or particularly mild mold. While
it can be a terror to plants inside the home, it generally poses less of a risk to a home’s human
inhabitants. It’s also a lot easier to treat than more advanced cases of mold infestation.
That’s because household mold is a hardcore pest. Like a lot of problems in life,
prevention is better than the cure. The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends
reducing moisture and humidity with good ventilation, and by keeping an eye out for
condensation and plumbing leaks. If you take away the moisture, you’ve struck a
serious blow against the mold’s ability to reproduce. If you fail to prevent a major
infestation of household mold, though, you’re likely to be in for some major consequences.
Best case scenario: You have to pay thousands of dollars for a professional mold decontamination
crew to chemically treat the affected areas and get them back under control. Worse scenario: The
mold infestation causes the structural integrity of the building to take a turn for the worse,
forcing you to find a new place to live. Worst case scenario? Being exposed to
mold for prolonged periods of time can have seriously negative impacts on your health.
Let’s take a look at the types of mold you’re likely to encounter on your food and around
your home, school, or place of employment. You can broadly categorize dangerous and unhealthy
molds by the effect they have on people. These three categories are Allergenic, Pathogenic,
and Toxigenic. Allergenic molds are the least harmful, and typically only cause
mild irritations in those allergic to the specific strains of mold in question,
or those with other sensitivities, like asthma.
Pathogenic is a little more serious - these molds can cause adverse effects
even on otherwise healthy people. This type of mold can cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis,
an acute response resembling bacterial pneumonia. And finally, Toxigenic Molds. These are the most
actively dangerous of all mold varieties, and - in the right circumstances - they can
produce mycotoxins and aflatoxins, neither of which you want anywhere near your body.
These can lead to severe health consequences, like irreversible damage to the lungs and immune
system. Toxic spores can be inhaled while in a high-mold environment,
ingested on moldy food, or even absorbed into the body through skin contact.
When it comes to knowing whether your run-in with mold is some indigestion or a trip to the ER,
it all comes down to what species of mold you’re encountering. Some of the most common molds around
the home are Alternaria, an allergenic mold that forms around damp areas. Aspergillus, one of the
most common, it’s typically allergenic but some strains can produce deadly aflatoxins, capable of
causing cancer in humans. And Stachybotrys, also known as the infamous “Black Mold.”
It’s feared for its high capacity to produce mycotoxins, which can wreak havoc on human health,
especially if the people in question are asthmatic, allergic, or immunocompromised.
However, just to make sure we’re not causing you to lose any sleep tonight,
it’s worth noting that Black Mold isn’t quite as scary as its reputation suggests.
While a Black Mold infestation in your home obviously isn’t a good thing,
studies have shown that links between Black Mold exposure and serious illness is overblown.
You’re much more likely to become seriously unwell from Black Mold if you ingest it on food.
Outside the home, two of the most common molds you’re likely to encounter are Fusarium and
Cladosporium. Fusarium is a common soil fungus typically seen on plants, but it may find its way
to your carpet, and infect your eyes, skin, and nails. Cladosporium is found on decaying plants,
woody plants, food, straw, soil, paint, textiles, and the surface of fiberglass duct liner in
the interior of supply ducts. It’s also been connected to a large number of health issues,
from causing skin lesions to intrinsic asthma in children. Don’t mess with mold, kids.
And finally, let’s talk about mold on food - what to expect, and why mold on certain types of
cheese, like blue cheese, is considered a delicacy rather than a sign of decay. Pretty much all food
with any degree of moisture, from meats to breads to vegetables to cheese, are susceptible to mold.
This is because the foods themselves provide ample nutrients for the molds to metabolize and grow.
Bread in particular can be host to an impressive variety of different molds.
This is because of the rich organic materials found in it. Sugar and carbohydrates especially
fuel the growth of mold spores. The main varieties of bread mold are Rhizopus stolonifer, aka Black
Bread Mold, Penicillium Mold, and Cladosporium Mold - just like the
Mold we discussed earlier. While a number of these molds are unlikely to hurt you,
it’s better to be on the safe side and throw out any food exhibiting any kind of mold growth.
The one exception, of course, being cheese. The reason that cheese seems to defy everything we
know about mold is because of the particular type of mold that cheesemakers cultivate.
That being, molds from the Penicillium Family, such as Penicillium Roqueforti
and Penicillium Glaucum. The combination of acidity, salinity, moisture, density,
temperature, and oxygen flow in cheese prevents the mold from becoming Toxigenic. Instead,
the mold gives cheeses like blue cheese a distinctive, bitter flavor loved by connoisseurs.
And as you can probably tell from the name, Penicillium molds allow us to produce the
antibiotic Penicillin, which has saved millions of lives since its discovery in 1928.
Unlike a lot of foods, hard cheeses also allow for developing mold colonies to be quarantined
and removed. Unlike a lot of foods, if a non-benign mold begins to develop on hard cheese,
that part can be cut off without affecting the rest of the cheese. The same cannot be said for
soft cheese or any other food, where visible mold indicates that it’s embedded deeper into
the overall structure of the food. In other words, if one slice of bread, or one part of a
vegetable is moldy, you’re better off tossing everything it was touching, just to be safe.
Food that wasn’t made moldy intentionally, like the handful of artisan cheeses we’ve
discussed here, are best kept separate from mold. And the same can be said for your home,
and your body. When it comes to most kinds of mold, your best
bet is to keep your distance. But when it comes to blue cheese? Well, Bon Appetit!
Now check out “If You Eat Leftovers You Should Stop Doing It Right Now”
and “GROSS Food In Other Countries.”