Mold on a sandwich discovery for kids12/15/2023 These mold spores “float through the air and they find suitable conditions - which food is very suitable with a lot of nutrients - where they can start and start their growth circle.” “ growth is usually encouraged by warm and humid conditions,” says Feng. That’s partially why they, like us, are attracted to food. Like most organisms, mold needs oxygen and nutrients to grow. But nonetheless, these spores are always floating through the air, Feng says. Mold spores are too small to see with the naked eye. “If bread has mold growing on it I’d say discard it - the whole piece.” This means nearly invisible roots, a visible stalk that rises above the surface, and spores floating through the air spreading their DNA. Physically, you can think of the mold as having similar characteristics to a dandelion, Feng says. We often only see the colorful, fuzzy part of a mold, but in reality, there’s an invisible root system burrowing in our food. It can be detected both indoors and outdoors, year-round.” “They are small but they can be found in virtually every environment. “Molds are microscopic fungi,” Feng tells Inverse. But at its core mold is part of the same biological kingdom as mushrooms, says Betty Feng, an associate professor of food science at Purdue University. Mold comes in many forms, ranging from the dangerous black mold that might haunt the damp corners of your house to small fuzzy patches of periwinkle blue that bloom on slices of bread. Inverse spoke with three food scientists and microbiologists - Betty Feng, Arun Bhunia, and Jeffrey Farber - to get to the bottom of this moldy mystery. When it comes to passed-down wisdom on whether or not it’s safe to go full-steam ahead with your sandwich construction or fumigate your entire kitchen, there’s much confusion around how to safely eat - or discard - moldy food. But where do you draw the line? Is it really that bad to cut off the mold and eat the rest? These microscopic fungi are not only figuratively stomach-turning - they can also be literally dangerous if consumed. But when you open your bag of sandwich bread to find that small splotches of the stuff have preemptively colonized your lunch, it’s anything but endearing. Mold has all the hallmarks of a cute microorganism: it’s small, colorful, and fuzzy.
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