Storage Molds

Appears in
On Food and Cooking

By Harold McGee

Published 2004

  • About

In addition to the usual disease microbes, the molds that can grow on cheese are of some concern. When cheeses are held in storage for some time, toxin-producing foreign molds (Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium viridicatum and P. cyclopium) may occasionally develop on their rinds and contaminate them to the depth of up to an inch/2 cm. This problem appears to be very rare, but does make it advisable to discard cheeses overgrown with unusual mold.