thanks to the the guys who helped me with te question about my jam with
surface mold, i honestly didnt know the risk. Cancer is not something i
d have contemplated by eating it/skimmed of course.

Having been brought up by parents, who experienced lean times in the
20s and 30s,, they taught me not to waste anything, so now i find it
hard to throw anything out.

i remember being suprised when a botanical researcher told me that when

a fruit , an apple for example, has just a small part rotten, then that

rotteness/whatever that is, has already permeated the whole apple and
could be detected as such in a lab.

Question then, can i read that rotteness is toxicness, and therefore
also potentially carcengenic, like the molds we ve been talking
about on jams and jellies??? have i in effect been poisoning myself
when i cut off the rotten part of an apple and eat the rest??

In article om>,
says...
> thanks to the the guys who helped me with te question about my jam with
> surface mold, i honestly didnt know the risk. Cancer is not something i
> d have contemplated by eating it/skimmed of course.
>
> Having been brought up by parents, who experienced lean times in the
> 20s and 30s,, they taught me not to waste anything, so now i find it
> hard to throw anything out.
>
> i remember being suprised when a botanical researcher told me that when
>
> a fruit , an apple for example, has just a small part rotten, then that
>
> rotteness/whatever that is, has already permeated the whole apple and
> could be detected as such in a lab.
>
> Question then, can i read that rotteness is toxicness, and therefore
> also potentially carcengenic, like the molds we ve been talking
> about on jams and jellies??? have i in effect been poisoning myself
> when i cut off the rotten part of an apple and eat the rest??
>
>
The rule of thumb that I use is that if the fruit is hard, like an
apple, and is only "spoiled" on the surface (such as an apple that has
been dropped and bruised) the "spoiled" part can be cut off and the rest
of the fruit eaten. If there is visible mold involved, I'll cut off a
litte extra "good" flesh to give a margin of error.

If the fruit is hard, like an apple, and the stem and core are involved
with visible mold, the whole thing goes out.

If the fruit is soft, like a tomato, and there is simply a bruise or
soft spot with unbroken skin, I'll slice the soft part off and check out
the remaining part. It's often still quite useable.

If the fruit is soft and the skin is broken with or without visible mold
involved, I usually chuck it out.

Small fruits like berries, if they have visible mold, broken skin or are
uniformly soft, go out.

Stuff in jars and cans may be the most dangerous, given that some of the
nastiest toxins are produced in the absence of air. If I see mold when
I open a sealed container, it goes out. Not worth the risk, imo.

Veggies like onions regularly have some mold developing on and/or under
the skin when you buy them. If you're very careful in peeling away the
outer skin and surface layers, you're probably OK. But you need to
either thoroughly cook or refrigerate the remaining unused part, to
prevent any remaining mold from getting a foothold. Folks have died
from botulism from "fried" onions left sitting on a grill, partially
cooked. The low heat and oil provided a good air-free environment for
the molds and their toxins to multiply.

A good reference cookbook, like the "Joy of Cooking", usually has good
info on this kind of stuff (food safety), along with all the other
"regular" good info. Should be plenty of info on the FDA and USDA web
sites as well, along with their Canadian and European counterparts.

Bob

yetanotherBob wrote:

> The rule of thumb that I use is that if the fruit is hard, like an
> apple, and is only "spoiled" on the surface (such as an apple that has
> been dropped and bruised)
> the "spoiled" part can be cut off and the rest
> of the fruit eaten.

That's what I do.
I find a lot of apples like that in the woods.

> If there is visible mold involved, I'll cut off a
> litte extra "good" flesh to give a margin of error.

Hmm...

--
pete