Mold issue, opinions.

[JohnsMyName]

Hi all, so I had a bit of a fiasco in my curing chamber. A week and a half ago I herniated a disc in my back, long story short I couldn’t make it down the basement stairs since before my injury to check on this/open door for air flow. I also had a piece of meat drip on my humidity reader (poor place on my part) and was running about 88-92% RH at 52F for awhile with no air exchange. All my smoked meats look fine, I do have a bresoala that has white mold similar to pics below, but nothing colored. The issue is with boneless leg of lamb.

Does the mold below look safe to wash with vinegar and process? I know white smooth is good, white fury is ok but wash to remove, and colors are bad. This has just the slightest green in the middle of white on one small spot. Can I cut that area out? Should I just pitch it? Also, is other meat safe since it was in such close proximity?

Please help!

ETA: I also have a large piece of lamb that I started the cure on, but with the injury haven’t been able to rinse and tie. It’s more lamb with 3% salt , cure #2 and spices. Has been vacuum sealed in fridge for 23 days now. Can I go ahead and start drying it now or is that too long?

 

[old sarge]

Looks safe enough wrap and toss in the trash! I am serious about that. Don't take chances. Pitch it! But that is just me. But maybe someone with a lot of background in this will come along and offer something a little more encouraging.

 

[JohnsMyName]

Thanks for your thoughts Sarge.

During a google search I’ve read on other forums that it is likely fine. Something about white mold being safe and when green is in very center of mold spots it’s just fruiting white mold. Even most green molds on meat are ok, it’s that 0.01% risk chance that people just toss. That said grey or black is a definite no-no.

I used 3% salt and cure #2 on this meat, so I have that going for me. I really don’t want to have to toss it, I’ve been aging it for 2.5 months and lamb is expensive to begin with.

I find the knowledge on this forum to fantastic and really hoping someone has a more definitive answer one way or the other.

 

[pc farmer]

I would leave it for now. Looks fine to me. Just keep a eye on it.

I dry cure meats, have a home built camber. If that has any value to you.

 

[SonnyE]

What if it is not fine? What if it makes you or the Family sick?
When in doubt, throw it out. That's my opinion.

 

[pc farmer]

What if it is not fine? What if it makes you or the Family sick?
When in doubt, throw it out. That's my opinion.

I have had worse and it turned out great. Do some reading on molds.

 

[daveomak]

EXCELLENT PICTURES !!!!
Looks OK to me... Give it a white vinegar scrub and finish the aging...

Are Any Food Molds Beneficial?
Yes, molds are used to make certain kinds of cheeses and can be on the surface of cheese or be developed internally. Blue veined cheese such as Roquefort, blue, Gorgonzola, and Stilton are created by the introduction of P. roqueforti or Penicillium roqueforti spores. Cheeses such as Brie and Camembert have white surface molds. Other cheeses have both an internal and a surface mold. The molds used to manufacture these cheeses are safe to eat.

Hard salami and dry-cured country hams – Use
Scrub mold off surface. It is normal for these shelf-stable products to have surface mold.

Our world is full of organisms that scientists have yet to discover and officially describe as a species. You may have heard in the news about a new species of amphibian discovered in a remote rainforest or new species of fish discovered at the bottom of the sea. But you don’t have to travel to far flung places to find new species. Sometimes they are right under our noses…. growing on salami.


In a recent paper published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology, a group of scientists from Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Slovenia describe a new species of the fungus Penicillium from an Italian salami. Penicillium species are molds that colonize the surfaces of cheeses, salami, and other naturally aged fermented foods. The fungus that most commonly colonizes salami is Penicillium nalgiovense, a mold that makes the white fluffiness we associated with salami. Spores of mold are applied to the surface of the salami right after the meat has been fermented. The fungus rapidly colonizes the surface and prevents contaminating molds from growing and spoiling the salami.


These fuzzy white colonies are the mold Penicillium nalgiovense, the fungus that commonly grows on the surface of salami. The new mold species (Penicillium salamii) is green.

When this group of scientists was conducting a biodiversity survey of molds in a salami plant in Calabria, Italy, they noticed something surprising. They found the typical Penicillium nalgiovense, but they also noticed another type of Penicillium species that looked different. While Penicillium nalgiovense is almost always white, some molds were green in color. They isolated these green molds and then sequenced several regions of DNA of these molds to compare them to Penicillium nalgiovense and other Penicillium species. The DNA sequences showed that this fungus is distinct from other existing described species, but identical to undescribed Penicillium strains that scientists had isolated from cured meats in Denmark and Slovenia. The scientists have aptly named this new species Penicillium salamii and suspect that it is quite widespread in cured meats made around the world.

Some Penicillium species can produce mycotoxins, toxic substances that can have harmful effects on human health. The scientists checked to see if Penicillium salamii produced these chemicals, but fortunately they couldn’t detect any. So it seems like this mold is safe for cured meat production.

 

[chef jimmyj]

An entire hunk o meat covered in green mold I would think about tossing it. One coin sized spot? Wear gloves, give it a vinegar wash and hang it to finish drying. You are accurate on fruiting. Molds can grow next to each other but rarely on top of each other. By their nature, they inhibit any other mold from taking their food source over...JJ
.

 

[JohnsMyName]

Great stuff guys, from the “in doubt, toss it out” to the scientific references. This is why I love this forum, thank you all for your thoughtful comments.

I’m going to rinse it well with vinegar and process it. I’ll eat some and give it a few days before I let anyone else try it just to be certain.

 

[old sarge]

Hope it all works out well.

 

[pc farmer]

Great stuff guys, from the “in doubt, toss it out” to the scientific references. This is why I love this forum, thank you all for your thoughtful comments.

I’m going to rinse it well with vinegar and process it. I’ll eat some and give it a few days before I let anyone else try it just to be certain.

I would just wipe it down, not rinse it.

 

[JohnsMyName]

Sarge - Thanks.

Farmer - I plan to use a brand new tooth brush to dip in vinegar a scrub off all mold then blot dry with a paper towel. I think that will be best thorough while minimal approach.