Everyone has had that battle with themselves while looking around in the refrigerator for something to eat: it has mold on it… do you eat it? Well, depending on just what kind of food “it” is, it might be salvageable and it might not be.
No matter what we put in the refrigerator, if it gets left in there long enough, mold will eventually start to grow on it. Jams, jellies, preserves, leftovers, it does not typically matter what it is. Most of us like good food and unfortunately, mold usually has the same tastes that we do and invades our refrigerators on a daily basis, ruining the meal of leftovers we thought we were going to have after work.
Improperly home canned foods are at risk for mold growth. Fruits and vegetables must always be washed carefully and inspected for quality before canning and not only that, but the jars and other equipment that is used must also be sterilized, usually by boiling them in water.
So, what do you do what that item in the fridge that has mold on it? There are not a whole lot of things that can be saved once it is contaminated with mold. But, dense items like hard salami or dry-cured country hams can be saved because these items have a pretty stable shelf life and it is common for them to have surface mold. Simply scrub it off.
Anything with a high moisture content or a soft texture, however, needs to be thrown away once mold starts to grow on it. This can include leftover casseroles, lunch meat, hot dogs, and bacon in the meat category and soft cheeses, yogurt, sour cream, and even cheeses made with mold should be thrown away. It may sound odd to throw away a block of cheese contaminated with mold if the cheese was made with mold to begin with, but it is likely that the new mold growing on your cheese was not part of the manufacturing process and this can be dangerous.
Baked goods like bread should also be thrown away because they are porous and may be contaminated below the surface.
Jams, jellies, preserves, and marmalades found to be contaminated with mold needs to be thrown away because they have a high moisture content and are soft enough for the mold to infect the entire jar.
Showing posts with label mold remediation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mold remediation. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Keeping Mold Off Of Your Personal Items And Clothes
Mold grows everywhere, but sometimes we humans give it a little help by some of the habits we exhibit in our daily lives. We do not always know when mold is present, though, or what may cause mold to grow or what prevents it from growing. There are a few different things that you can do in order to keep mold off of your stuff and out of your house, but you will not be able to get rid of all mold from your living environment. It is in the air we breathe and on the ground we walk on; only when it starts to grow in colonies can we see it with the naked eye. While you cannot completely get rid of it, you can help prevent it from growing in colonies on your personal belongings.
Any fruit and vegetables in your kitchen should be checked for mold every day or so and anything that is showing spots of mold should have the mold either cut out of it or simply thrown away. Do not allow mold-contaminated fruits or vegetables to stay in your refrigerator or next to anything else.
If you have a baby or babysit one on a regular basis, odds are good that you have some baby bottles in your kitchen. They are made of odd shapes these days and sometimes you cannot get them completely dry and this includes some toddler “sippy” cups that have hollow handles that allow liquid from juice or milk inside. If they are not cleaned properly and dried thoroughly, mold can grow in them. The solution? After washing them and drying them, put them in your freezer until you need them again. Mold does not like to grow in cold temperatures and if the bottle has been washed immediately before being put in the freezer, it should be sterile.
Also, any wet clothing should never be thrown onto carpet and left there or even really on any floor. Once they stay there for over 24 hours, mold can start to grow on these and if the wet item is at the bottom of a dirty laundry basket or even worse, on the bottom of the floor of a closet underneath dry dirty clothes, it can contaminate everything else that it touches. The best way to deal with wet clothing from a swimming pool or from being outside in the snow is to wash it as soon as possible and do not put it in the same basket with dry clothes.
Any fruit and vegetables in your kitchen should be checked for mold every day or so and anything that is showing spots of mold should have the mold either cut out of it or simply thrown away. Do not allow mold-contaminated fruits or vegetables to stay in your refrigerator or next to anything else.
If you have a baby or babysit one on a regular basis, odds are good that you have some baby bottles in your kitchen. They are made of odd shapes these days and sometimes you cannot get them completely dry and this includes some toddler “sippy” cups that have hollow handles that allow liquid from juice or milk inside. If they are not cleaned properly and dried thoroughly, mold can grow in them. The solution? After washing them and drying them, put them in your freezer until you need them again. Mold does not like to grow in cold temperatures and if the bottle has been washed immediately before being put in the freezer, it should be sterile.
Also, any wet clothing should never be thrown onto carpet and left there or even really on any floor. Once they stay there for over 24 hours, mold can start to grow on these and if the wet item is at the bottom of a dirty laundry basket or even worse, on the bottom of the floor of a closet underneath dry dirty clothes, it can contaminate everything else that it touches. The best way to deal with wet clothing from a swimming pool or from being outside in the snow is to wash it as soon as possible and do not put it in the same basket with dry clothes.
Important Information About Mold And Home Canning
Canning vegetables and fruits is a popular summertime activity for a lot of people, especially women in rural areas that have too much of one thing or the other grown in their gardens for their families to eat or for them to give away. Whether it is jams, jellies, marmalades, pickles, soups, or almost anything else, if it can be canned, someone is probably doing it during the harvest season.
A similar process is used in the commercial canning industry, but the boon of doing your own canning from home is that you know exactly what is going into the jar you are putting your food in. You have complete control over everything that goes inside and your exposure to pesticides and chemicals used on the foods in a canning factory is limited to what you use to protect your own garden from bugs and rodents.
Home canning also uses techniques that are tried and true to preserve food and prevent them from being contaminated by mold, yeast, and bacterias. Botulism and other diseases are caused by these contaminants and the canning techniques used to help prevent them are still in widespread use today. What can you do to help prevent your home canned goods from spoiling after you can them..? And how do you know if they’re spoiled after they’ve been on the shelf for a while..?
If you are a canner and have had some problems with spoiled or mold-contaminated jars in the past, then there are a few different things that could be causing your foods to spoil.
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your fruits or vegetables (or whatever you are canning) is thoroughly washed and of good quality. They also usually require peeling if you want a quicker processing time.
If the food is packed too tight in the jars, then the temperature in the center of the jar does not get high enough for a long enough time to allow for the complete sterilization of what is inside. Pack food loosely in jars and use the time, pressure, and temperature required by the recipe.
Put the lids on the jars after filling them and immediately begin processing the food before any microorganisms can start to grow. Once mold spores get into the jars, you’ll have problems later on because a lot of times high temperatures simply do not kill mold spores, just like cold temperatures don’t tend to. Use sterile equipment and jars.
Lastly, if you find mold growing in one of your jars after you open it, the best thing to do is toss it. Soft foods will become completely contaminated by mold, unlike hard blocks of cheese and other dense foods.
A similar process is used in the commercial canning industry, but the boon of doing your own canning from home is that you know exactly what is going into the jar you are putting your food in. You have complete control over everything that goes inside and your exposure to pesticides and chemicals used on the foods in a canning factory is limited to what you use to protect your own garden from bugs and rodents.
Home canning also uses techniques that are tried and true to preserve food and prevent them from being contaminated by mold, yeast, and bacterias. Botulism and other diseases are caused by these contaminants and the canning techniques used to help prevent them are still in widespread use today. What can you do to help prevent your home canned goods from spoiling after you can them..? And how do you know if they’re spoiled after they’ve been on the shelf for a while..?
If you are a canner and have had some problems with spoiled or mold-contaminated jars in the past, then there are a few different things that could be causing your foods to spoil.
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your fruits or vegetables (or whatever you are canning) is thoroughly washed and of good quality. They also usually require peeling if you want a quicker processing time.
If the food is packed too tight in the jars, then the temperature in the center of the jar does not get high enough for a long enough time to allow for the complete sterilization of what is inside. Pack food loosely in jars and use the time, pressure, and temperature required by the recipe.
Put the lids on the jars after filling them and immediately begin processing the food before any microorganisms can start to grow. Once mold spores get into the jars, you’ll have problems later on because a lot of times high temperatures simply do not kill mold spores, just like cold temperatures don’t tend to. Use sterile equipment and jars.
Lastly, if you find mold growing in one of your jars after you open it, the best thing to do is toss it. Soft foods will become completely contaminated by mold, unlike hard blocks of cheese and other dense foods.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
