[Dimz (OP)]

Hi all

I felt like trying the traditional american meal of 'peanut butter and jelly' on toast. I buttered and jellied my toast and began munching away, it didn't taste different (beyond the obvious taste of the PBnJ). I got through one slice, and got the the corner of the last one, and noticed some mould. It's green and has a small white halo around the outside. I'm pretty sure I've ingested some.

Will I be ok?

[CliffordK]

Oh GOD....  you had better call the ER and ask for an emergency air evac!!!!!!

You'll be just fine.  Mold is pretty ubiquitous in our environment, and is actually very closely related to the same yeasts that make your bread rise.  If the mold spores found their way to your bread, undoubtedly you've also breathed some in.  The risk is probably greatest with inhalation, or allergies, rather than eating small quantities of it.  Even so, the risk is minimal unless you have bad allergies, or you have end-stage AIDS.

Your preparations likely masked the flavors some, but you'll know if you are consuming large amounts of it.

I would assume that cooking the mold will also kill most of it, further reducing any risk.

While the mold often spreads to successive slices, it is also possible that one slice had it, and the next did not.  You can always tear off the moldy corner if you wish, and eat the rest of the slice   []

[JP]

I agree with CliffordK that it's a minimal risk, especially since you didn't have an immediate allergic reaction.  Still, it's a slight risk to eat mold since sometimes it can contain toxins.  Also, with molds there's a part you don't see growing into the food, so if you want to be really safe, you should throw out the whole loaf, which is recommended by the USDA:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/molds_on_food/

This isn't an issue with bread, as far as I know, but I know that molds in the genus Aspergillus can produce Aflatoxin, which is toxic and highly carcinogenic.  You'd tend to find that in your peanut butter, rather than on your bread, though.

[Geezer]

Not to scare anyone or anything, but if you are feeling an urge to hop on your broomstick and go trolling around the neighborhood, you might want to read this first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

[Airthumbs]

Ergotism, I have heard of that before and not just from the Salem Witch hunts but in English history also. So if eating moldy bread gives you hallucinations and makes you feel like your limbs are on fire I would skip it...  []

[Dimz (OP)]

Many thanks everybody. Hopefully I don't get ergotism! Next time I'll make sure I inspect the bread more carefully

[Geezer]

Many thanks everybody. Hopefully I don't get ergotism! Next time I'll make sure I inspect the bread more carefully

I don't think that's at all likely. The mold grows on the grain, not the bread. It was a bit naughty of me to bring it into the discussion.

[Airthumbs]

I think the mold that mostly grows on bread is penecillium, these type of molds produce mycotoxins that allow the mold to break down various compounds that it grows on.

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The Penicillium in the picture is the green circular structure, I have no idea what the other ones are?
Some research has shown that exposure to high levels of mycotoxins can lead to neurological problems.  Alexander Fleming, used a species of Penicillium to create the antibiotic Penicillin, however prolonged exposure to the spores of molds can cause allergic reactions, and in the case of exposure to high levels of penecillium, could lead to an allergy for penicillin.

Basically not only is it probably not the best to eat mold on bread,  also it's not that good to be around as it can cause all sorts of health problems.

[chris]

It's worth bearing in mind that the reason bread goes mouldy is because the air around us is awash with fungal spores looking for a place to land and germinate. Bread is a perfect petri dish! It's nutritious, damp and often kept in a dark bread-bin or bag, which are ideal conditions for fungi and other moulds to grow. Consequently, whenever the bread is exposed to the air, some spores settle and begin to grow. Usually, you have eaten the bread before the mould colony that is growing on it becomes big enough to see. Were you to look hard enough though, you'd find miniature versions of those big green colonies (see in the bag above) occurring all over the place.

(Sorry if I just put someone off their lunchtime sandwich...)

[stargazer1957]

I ate a slice of toast without realising it had mould on it, this morning. Yuck! [xx(] Looked at the rest of the loaf of bread, and saw that it was full of mould. Glad I'm likely to survive this, going on these answers.  []

[chris]

You'll have increased your repertoire of colonising microbes, transiently!

It's worth considering that moulds that grow on bread are likely to be poorly adapted to surviving inside the body, so they will tend to have low pathogenicity. However, fungi do have a spectacular arsenal of chemicals that they can make, meaning that they may have laced the food they were growing on with substances that might affect your health - take a look at the story of ergot for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot