aka...science room
mould
Mmm. Mouldy, half-eaten food welded to the plate. Tasty. But where does the mould come from in the first place?
Mould is a type of fungus along with mushrooms and toadstools. Like all fungi, it produces spores enabling it to spread. Spores are always present in the air, waiting for a piece of unsuspecting food to colonise.
Some moulds are a greenish colour but, unlike leafy green plants, fungi do not produce their own food by photosynthesising. Instead, they decompose organic matter and eat that.
Mould spores will quickly move in on any damaged food that provides easy access to nutrients. Cutting or cooking food are the easiest ways of damaging it.
The spores then germinate producing filament strands which secrete digestive enzymes onto the food to break it down. The liquid food is then absorbed by the long filaments which grow to form the ‘fur’ you see on mouldy food.
Some moulds, like those used in the production of blue cheese, are edible but the majority of those you find setting up home at the back of your fridge are not so tasty. Unless you want a runny tummy it is best to throw away any food that has mould growing on it.
But not all moulds are bad. Penicillin is a type of mould that grows on fruit and cheese. Unfortunately, you can’t just eat some mouldy cheese when you have a sore throat as there will be lots of other moulds on it as well.
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