In This ArticleView AllIn This ArticleGood Mold vs. Bad MoldWhat Should I Do with Moldy Cheese?What If I Ate Moldy Cheese?How Can I Prevent Cheese from Molding?What Cheeses Are Least Likely to Mold?The Bottom Line
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Good Mold vs. Bad Mold
What Should I Do with Moldy Cheese?
What If I Ate Moldy Cheese?
How Can I Prevent Cheese from Molding?
What Cheeses Are Least Likely to Mold?
The Bottom Line
Cheese is, and I do not think I am exaggerating here, perhaps the highest form of food milk can aspire to. The hundreds of varieties mean there is likely a cheese for nearly every palate, and almost all cultures around the world with access to milk have created their own versions—from soft fresh cheeses you can eat the day they are made to cheeses aged so long they could vote in the next election. These days, even the most basic grocery store has a decent stash of slabs and wedges to choose from, and if you are anything like me, it is easy to overbuy. It is also easy to forget about a cheese you have already opened and unwrap a new one. Which means, inevitably, we are faced with a moldy cheese. This begs the question, is moldy cheese salvageable, and how do I know?
How to Tell If Cheese Is Bad
In some ways, all cheese is, in and of itself, mold. And many of the molds involved in cheesemaking are great. That thick coating of white mold on soft-rind cheeses like Brie or Camembert, or the blue veins in your favorite Gorgonzola. And frankly, none of the molds that are likely to grow on your cheeses will make you ill. But they will potentially affect the flavor of your cheese, and not in a good way. So, it is important to know how to handle the mold on your cheeses to ensure you don’t waste any delicious morsels.
Getty Images / Russell102
You ate cheese, so you were eating mold anyway. There is no need to panic unless you ate a whole wedge of cheese thickly coated in green fur (and if so, you have other issues you might want to explore); you are very unlikely to get sick from cheese with a little mold on it. Your stomach acid is some powerful stuff and will kill the spores in the mold before you feel any impact.
Storing cheeses properly and eating them within a reasonable time frame is the best way to prevent cheese from molding. To store cheese, wrap it in special cheese paper or in a layer of parchment paper. Label with the type of cheese and the day you bought it. Store in your crisper drawer, which will have consistent temperature and humidity. If you have a dedicated wine fridge, you can store cheese in there, where the temps are less cold, which is actually better for the cheese.
Want to avoid the mold issue as much as possible? Stick with long-aged, hard cheeses like Parmesan, pecorino, older Cheddars, aged Gouda and the like. Cheeses that age for 18 months or longer are least likely to mold on you.
Whichever cheeses you love most, buy them fresh, store them properly and don’t get worried about a little bit of mold. After all, in the cheese world, sometimes the mold is the most delicious part!
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