Why aren’t you supposed to eat moldy food when penicillin is made from mold?
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Original Thread: r/explainlikeimfive
Question asked by u/ButterscotchTheDog
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Penicillin is made from a specific type of mold (Penicillium mold), and it is to be noted that not all molds are human friendly and consumable, rather most are deadly and cause severe illnesses.
The good mold like Penicillium mold and the mold that makes blue cheese, well duh blue is what humans would want and when consumed do not harm humans to eat.
Although Penicillium is good, it is not meant to be consumed every day, rather Penicillium is a medicine and should be used upon the advice of a doctor since Penicillium can have side effects.
On the topic of good mold and bad mold, it is often difficult for a layman to distinguish between them. It’s quite hard to predict what will grow unless you’re very carefully controlling the conditions (cheesemakers are really careful about only growing the specific mold they need when they make cheese!) and because it’s hard to tell the difference between good and bad…
Conclusion: It’s difficult to distinguish between good mold and bad mold, thus it’s better to consume mold under professional advice and supervision or not consume it at all.
