Can You Get Sick From Eating Mould
If you eat something that is contaminated with mold you can get sick from it. It can cause severe diseases like nausea, fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and cramping in your stomach. Molde spores are almost everywhere but certain types of molds can cause illness such as eating moldy bread or cheese can make you sick.
Heres everything you need to know if contaminated bread makes you sick, including if it is possible to contract food poisoning from bread that is past its expiration date. The good news is, eating even a tiny amount of moldy bread probably will not hurt you — you are probably just going to get a bit queasy. If you do eventually become ill because of your moldy bread, it is probably going to be a matter of hours after eating it.
Because you cannot tell the kind of mold you are dealing with by looking at just one piece of bread, you risk getting an allergic reaction from bread, or getting food poisoning, should you choose to dig into some. More importantly, while the usual molds on bread are not particularly damaging, there are a few dangerous ones that could harm your health. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, molds can trigger allergic reactions or respiratory problems, and certain types of molds produce toxic mycotoxin, which makes people sick or causes infections.
| According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture | Molds can trigger allergic reactions or respiratory problems. |
| According to Dr, Bedford | You may get a case of sickness after eating those molds accidentally, because mold tastes bad, rather than there is some specific toxin there. |
Mold itself can cause an allergic reaction in people who are sensitive to it, and some molds produce toxic substances (mycotoxins) that can make you sick. In fact, contamination with mycotoxin is a widespread issue in agriculture, since mycotoxin is produced naturally by molds. What is more, according to the Michigan State University, bread mold sometimes produces fungus poisons called mycotoxin, which may cause illness.
Some people are allergic to edible molds that are in everyday foods, such as meats that have been processed and some cheeses. In some cases, people develop an allergic reaction to specific molds, and that may contribute to breathing problems, says Rudolph Bedford. You may get a case of sickness after accidently eating those molds, but it is more likely that is because mold tastes bad, rather than because there is some specific toxin there, says Dr. Bedford.
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Well, you are not going to die of eating mouldy foods, says Dr. Rudolph Bedford, and you can digest them just as you would any other food, if your immune system is healthy. The short answer is, no, you are not likely to die from eating mould; you will digest it like any other food, and, provided that you have developed a relatively healthy immune system, the most you are going to experience is some sort of nausea or vomiting due to the taste/image of what you have just eaten. With this, your stomach is barely going to notice you ate something as gross as mold, and will digest as normal.
If you are not too grossed out about that blotch of mold in your meal, you may be tempted to simply trim it and keep eating, but whether or not this is really a good idea depends on the food. Through my research, however, I learned you should never just cut the mold off and eat the rest of your bread.
If only part of a hard cheese, like Parmesan, is contaminated with mold, you can cut the contaminated part — and at least an inch around and under the moldy part — off and eat the rest. Hard cheeses (not to be confused with ones where mold is a part of the process) are edible as long as you slice off at least 1 inch around and underneath the mold. Softer cheeses, however, like Brie or Camembert, should be discarded because mold may spread to other parts of the food. If a cheese is supposed to have mold on it–say, Blue Cheese or Camembert–then that cheese is certainly fine to eat.
Aside from molds that are deliberately part of food — er, blue cheese!–you do not actually want to eat food with mold. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cutting off moldy parts does not guarantee your food is safe to eat. The bottom line is it is not possible to know beforehand whether or not moldy foods you are eating are safe, so your best bet is to proceed with caution. Of course, the best you can do is to avoid mould forming on bread to begin with – and that partly comes down to storage.
For hard cheeses, where mold is not a part of the production process (meaning that you just found a random patch of mold on your cheese), you can cut it off without fear, again, leaving at least 1 inch between the mold and the rest of your food – but just for the hard cheeses. Because mold is so easily spreading in soft foods due to how they grow — be they bread, cheese, meat, or sauces — it needs to be thrown out immediately. Soft foods (like bread) and ones that have high moisture levels (like yogurts and canned or canned goods) should absolutely be thrown out if you find any mold, because mold is easier to get deeper into those items than it is in harder foods.
Uncooked meats and poultry have higher moisture contents, which makes mold easier to spread, and cooked/leftover meats and poultry may contain bacteria that grows with mold, according to USDA. Soft cheeses, like cottage cheese, may have been contaminated beneath the surface, and may have bacteria growing alongside mold, too. This could be because of the mold toxin, or the result of eating mold-adjacent bacteria, which causes foodborne illnesses.
This is typically mould from your surroundings, not from your food, but exposure to mould may trigger vomiting, diarrhea, or headaches in some people. Although mold can create mycotoxin in foods, this generally does not occur until the mold has reached maturity and conditions are correct — i.e., the food has gone bad. For instance, mold produced by the species Aspergillus causes aflatoxicosis, a potentially deadly form of acute poisoning that could damage your liver. Yogurt and sour cream may produce mycotoxin if they grow mold, so microbiologists advise against ever skimming off the molds and using the leftovers.
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All these molds are usually considered safe for consumption because they are consumed as part of the foods that they are used to produce, explains Keri Gans. In short, yes, molds are used to make some of your favorite foods, such as cheese, soy sauce, vinegar, yogurt, and others – meaning some molds are clearly not hazardous to eat, Gans explains.
What should I do if I ate mold?
If you experience prolonged nausea and vomiting after knowing you consumed anything moldy, it is advised to visit a doctor. They might give drugs to cause vomiting or diarrhea. Therefore, throwing away any moldy food you find the next time you are home is better.
How long after eating mold Will I get sick?
Depending on the sort of mold you ate, timing may vary: The Cleveland Clinic states that some reactions happen immediately while others take time to happen. However, in general, you should seek medical treatment if you suddenly encounter symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea, fever, or diarrhea.
What does mold poisoning feel like?
Mold toxicity has a diverse impact on everyone’s body in different ways. Some people deal with persistent headaches and migraines, shortness of breath, mental fog, exhaustion, and even depression. Since symptoms vary from one to person, mold exposure may not be immediately linked to them.