Moldy Food Fears

[BejeweledMexican]

I always freak out that something is wrong with my food, like literally always and it's so annoying. I've gotten a lot better with it but today was rough. I was sitting at my desk minding my own business just chowing away at some animal crackers. It seemed like the animal crackers tasted kind of 'off' but I couldn't pinpoint what it was so I just kept eating them, telling myself it was nothing. Well then I look down at one of the crackers and there's like little black dots on it, in three different spots. My first thought was mold, even though I bought the crackers last week. I'm just concerned that the other animal crackers I ate had mold on them and that I'll get really sick from it! My stomach hasn't felt great since I realized it....ugh.

 

[mollyfin]

Can animal crackers even get moldy? I always figured they'd be really shelf-stable for a long time. I'm guessing any dark spots are just something in the cookie (burned bits mixed in, bits of grain that weren't fully processed, I don't know what's actually in animal crackers so I'm just saying examples!) but even if they are moldy, you'll probably be fine.

I don't know if my family is just more oblivious than most people, but we've ingested so much mold over the years. Like...we'll be halfway through eating something then realize "Oh, dangit!" A few months ago I ate moldy cake...nothing happened except me being annoyed that I had to throw out cake! And I once chugged most of a bottle of moldy Gatorade before realizing. Seltzer (I wouldn't have thought that could get moldy but I guess something got in when it was being bottled), orange juice, bread, cheese, so many things. Never had a serious problem beyond a little stomach upset - and even then that may have been in my mind.

Toss 'em if you really think they're off - no sense asking for trouble - but if you've eaten some mold, try not to worry about it. It happens. To some of us more than others.