Is it safe to eat butter that have mold on the surface?
I have got a large chunk of butter, with some green molds growing on one surface only, with spots that are 1cm in diameter, and only like 3~4 of them total.
the butter itself tastes and smells fine, once i cut off the mold parts.
it is unsalted butter.
It has been sitting in the fridge for few weaks.
so is it safe to eat butter after completely removing the mold parts ?
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Eating any form of microbiological organism is not safe. There is an extremely high risk of food poisoning if you eat the butter. The safest option would be to throw it out!
Throw out the entire stick immediately - mold on food means the food has mold roots, which contaminates the food. From the USDA "Molds on Food: Are They Dangerous?":
...you only see part of the mold on the surface of food — gray fur on forgotten bologna, fuzzy green dots on bread, white dust on Cheddar, coin-size velvety circles on fruits, and furry growth on the surface of jellies.
While the FDA article does mention that this is for "heavy" mold growth, it is difficult to determine how deep the mold growth is from the surface level. And it also goes on to mention:
In some cases, toxins may have spread throughout the food.
Throwing it out is the safest bet.
You could theoretically salvage the butter, but it really boils down to mold type. Melting and filtrating the butter will get rid of the mold and create ghee. But filtration will not remove aflatoxins that some types of molds produce.
Frankly, I would not eat anything with mold on it. It is safe to cut moldy spots off hard cheese (like cheddar) but softer cheeses should be thrown out if they grow mold. I would put butter in the soft cheese category.
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