Food Safety: How Dangerous Are Moldy Fruits And What Should You Do When You Eat One?
It is a very disheartening experience when you find that your fruits have started going moldy and therefore unfit for consumption. But, it's even more depressing when you don't realise that the fruits have gone moldy until you've started eating them. According to experts, however, eating a moldy fruit doesn't mean complete danger like many believe.
Although mold on fruit looks scary and dangerous, it is mostly not a health hazard. The fruit would most likely lose taste, but it would not cause danger to the body. Dr. William Li, a physician-scientist and author of Eat To Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself, explained that mold on food is common and that some molds are edible like the ones found on cheese.
According to Lisa Richards, nutritionist, and author of The Candida Diet, in some cases, most people are unaware of these mold on fruits, so ingesting mold on fruits can occur regularly, and the Consumption of mold is not a dangerous possibility. Richards further states that it is unexpected that side effects would occur from eating mold on fruits, but there are other symptoms to look out for, including nausea, vomiting, gas, and diarrhea.
If you consume mold on fruit, the first thing to do is protect your gut health by eating yogurt and kimchi and drinking a glass of pomegranate juice to help healthy bacteria grow naturally in the gut. According to Amanda A. Kostro Miller, RD, LDN, who serves on the advisory board for Smart Healthy Living, Certain people should be careful if eating mold on fruits, including elderly or immunosuppressed people. She also warns that some types of mold are dangerous than the others.
Furthermore, consuming mold for some people is not a risk. In contrast, on the flip side, those who happen to be allergic to mold may be at risk for classic allergy symptoms when they consume moldy fruits, and eating moldy fruit at a stretch can cause damage to gut microbiomes, which is one of the body's defense system.
How to Prevent Mold on Fruits
Geared towards preventing fruits from getting moldy, precautions must be taken to buy only the required quantity of fruits needed, and the fruits should be consumed within considerable time. Lisa Richards cited some fruits that can go moldy faster than others, such as oranges, strawberries, apples, grapes, and raspberries, and summed up that mold will spread more quickly on soft fruits than on firm ones, as the mold can creep into the more delicate flesh more quickly.
Also, storing even smaller quantities of these fruits and washing them just before consumption can help to lower the rate at which mold would develop on them.
To sum up, it is always best to toss moldy food without sniffing it, as sniffing would cause you to inhale toxic mold spores. So the best advice and judgment when it comes to moldy fruits is to toss them out without even paying the fruits a second glance.
