2. A microorganism that generally occurs as a visible fungus-like growth on areas of food exposed to the air. Mold can grow on many different types of food, regardless of whether it is refrigerated or stored in a dry area at room temperature, so any thoughts that freezing is a method to remove or kill mold is incorrect. When preserving foods by canning them, use proper heating and sealing processes to prevent the growth of mold bacteria. Proper storage which may include refrigeration or storing in cool dry areas will assist to prevent mold from forming, depending on the age or freshness of the food item, but certainly not eliminate it after food has been kept too long.
Cheese that develops mold can be classified as soft cheese mold or hard cheese mold. When mold appears on soft cheese, discard the cheese immediately. Soft cheeses contain a higher level of moisture which helps the water soluable toxins to penetrate below the suface and into the meat of the cheese. Soft cheeses such as boursin, Brie, Camembert, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, burratta, cottage cheese, or ricotta to name a few examples should be discarded if mold appears. Within hard cheese however, there is very little moisture, so the mold typically remains only on the surface of the cheese and can be easily removed by cutting off the area containing the mold, if the size of the cheese with the mold is sufficient to cut away easily. Be careful not to contaminate the knife and spread the mold by slicing too closely to the spores that have formed and thus, scraping them across adjacent areas. Also, if the piece of cheese is small in size, there is no value in taking the chance that all the mold is removed by cutting or slicing it away, so simply discard the cheese.
