When mold on food is OK

We all have had that disconcerting moment – there’s a bit of mold on a food item that, ordinarily, we’d be reluctant to toss. What to do…? In this article on the HuffPost, 4 Moldy Foods You Can Eat (Plus Which Foods to Toss), EatingWell gives some useful advice – we found it both interesting and ironic that you can keep hard cheeses made without mold (Parmesan), but you should toss soft cheeses made with mold (Blue cheese).

And in the article there’s a link to a related article, Do Food Expiration Dates Really Mean Anything?. Of particular interest is this explanation of various terminology – none of which has to do with safety:

“Sell-by” “Best if used by” and “use-by” have similar, but slightly different meanings. “Sell-by” is geared more toward the retailer, indicating to them when they should rotate product off the shelves. “Best if used by” is an indicator of quality (the food will not be “bad” after that date) and “use-by” is the last day the manufacturer recommends using the product based on quality, not safety.”

Enjoy the weekend, everybody.