What is Blue Cheese Mold? (2024)

FAQs

What is Blue Cheese Mold? ›

Blue cheese is made using Penicillium, a type of mold that's responsible for its unique taste, smell, and appearance. Unlike other types of mold, Penicillium does not produce toxins and is safe to consume.

Is blue cheese mold safe to eat? Yes. The blue cheese molds - Penicillium roqueforti - is safe for human consumption. It does not produce the same toxins as dangerous molds.

ntists continue to develop and grow different strains of Penicillium roqueforti (and other moulds and bacteria) in their labs to produce specific flavours. Nowadays most cheese-makers will add these pre-grown mould spores in a powder form, which they buy in specially.

Creamy, flavourful, matured

Slight hints of rural mushrooms give way to a mild profile consisting of creamy tones of browned butter, slowly resolving in a calm finish. Ranging from mild to sharp, blue mould cheese is made using milk from cows, goats and sheep, producing a wide variety of taste and texture combinations.

For the cheese to turn blue, oxygen must reach the inside of the cheese. This is often done by piercing the cheese with thin needles or skewers. The blue mold then matures inside the air tunnels, developing flavor as it ages. Most mold-containing cheeses take three to six months to mature.

The antibiotic penicillin is made from the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. Stilton and most other blue cheeses do use Penicillium mould to create the blue veins, but they use a different strain (P. roqueforti) and the whole mould, rather than the penicillin extract.

However, any time you see black or dark red mold growing on any cheese, throw it away, Png said. It's rare but it can be toxic. “Other than that, the only real consequences of ingesting most molds will be an unpleasant taste and texture,” she said.

Researchers have proved it's actually good for you. Along with other aged cheeses, blue cheese is great for your gut health and therefore you're over all well-being. Cheese is one of the foods many dieters ditch in the new year, thinking it's calorific because of the high fat content and will cause weight gain.

Blue cheese should be refrigerated to keep it fresh, so if you leave it out on your counter, it's going to spoil more quickly. In most cases, you'll notice that it's gone bad after just a few days. If you're accidentally left blue cheese out, it's best to throw it away if it's been two days or more.

These visible signs may include such colors as green, pink, or gray, and a texture that can be described as "fuzzy." If you smell the cheese and detect an odor that reminds you of ammonia, this is also a sign of spoilage. In both cases, you should toss the cheese.

Why do people dislike blue cheese? ›

David Gremmels, president of Rogue Creamery, says the piquancy can be overwhelming. “I also find that most people are turned off by the acidity, metallic notes, and off-putting texture created by hom*ogenization and standardization in commodity blue cheeses,” says Gremmels, who has helped steer the company since 2002.

Stilton is another world-famous blue cheese…or at least Blue Stilton is. (White Stilton, a lesser-known cheese made without the mold, is creamy, open-textured, and used for blending with fruits to make dessert cheeses.)

The main cheese-making Penicilliums — roqueforti (blue cheese), camemberti, (Camembert and Brie) and glaucum (Gorgonzola) — are not penicillin producers. They do produce other antibacterial metabolites — as well as human toxins and allergens — but no medically useful antibiotics.

That honor goes to pule cheese (or magareći sir), a rare cheese produced in Zasavica Donkey Reserve in west central Serbia. The price? Around $600 a pound. To put this in perspective, a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano costs $15 to $25 per pound and up, depending on the producer and how many months the cheese is aged.

The bottom line. Blue cheese is made using a type of mold called Penicillium, which is responsible for its distinct taste, smell, and appearance. Unlike other types of mold, the types of Penicillium used to produce blue cheese do not produce mycotoxins and are considered safe to consume.

All blue cheeses start as simple looking white wheels which are then pierced with stainless steel needles that create crevices in order for oxygen to interact with cultures in the cheese and allow the blue mold to grow from within.”

Fresh blue cheese already has mold in it, which is typically blue or green in color. However, you want to pay attention to the color of the creamy part of the cheese. It's normally a white, beige, or yellow shade. If you notice that it's started to turn pink, brown, or green, your blue cheese has likely spoiled.

Blue cheeses like Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola can have a shelf life of several months when unopened if they're refrigerated properly. Semi-hard cheeses like Swiss cheese also have a relatively long shelf life, often several months past their 'best by' date when kept in the refrigerator before opening.