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A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

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11–20 of 111 posts

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#11

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

Wat.

As in, his dad used to just cut mold off of food / remove the one moldy berry / whatever.

OC just throws it away because he has decided that where there is smoke there is a fire.

Really depends on the food / mold though.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#12
A few years ago I would commonly grab a box of snack cakes or other dessert / pastry to snack on for the night. I one time pulled a box of the store brand equivalent of swiss cake rolls and started eating. I got through a few before realize they tastes rather off and the texture was odd, checked the date and they were a few years expired. If i recall correctly they were visibly bad but not as explicitly as those twinkled. The were darker in color and somewhat deformed.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wat.

Yeah, I don’t get it either. Unless the point is that you should completely discard the food, rather than trying to remove the moldy bit and eat the rest? People never died for no reason, though, they just didn’t understand the reason at the time. The implication is that they thought they had removed the mold and they hadn’t and so they died?

This is from the article:

> Purrington, meanwhile, has reflected on his Twinkie experience. While his father had no objection to eating moldy foods, he recalls, his mother generally treated "sell-by" dates with more respect.

So I assume the top-level comment is a confirming anecdote.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#14

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

Wat.

I believe they meant to say "my Dad used to recommend not removing mold from food".

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#15
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wat.

Yeah, I don’t get it either. Unless the point is that you should completely discard the food, rather than trying to remove the moldy bit and eat the rest? People never died for no reason, though, they just didn’t understand the reason at the time. The implication is that they thought they had removed the mold and they hadn’t and so they died?

Yes, the point is that it's often unsafe to eat a food item that has gone mouldy, even after removing the visibly mouldy bits.

The implication of the "people used to die for no reason" line is that 'we always did x in the old days' isn't necessarily a good argument for the safety of x. The link between action and consequence is often obscure, especially for the class of actions that usually turn out fine.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#16

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

I had an older coworker who used to do this, and had no qualms eating moldy food. He had some advanced biology degrees and worked in a lab. When asked why he ate moldy food, he would reply "Most of the time the mold (some mold type) and is mostly harmless to people. The trouble is knowing what is and isn't ok to eat. Besides, I'm not letting safe food go to waste."

On the other hand, I knew a foreign student who disappeared from classes for 6 weeks. When asked about him, we were told that he had been in the hospital for some time because he had nearly died from eating moldy chicken. When he returned near the end of the semester he looked like a skeleton having lost more than 40 lbs on a super skinny frame.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don’t get it either. Unless the point is that you should completely discard the food, rather than trying to remove the moldy bit and eat the rest? People never died for no reason, though, they just didn’t understand the reason at the time. The implication is that they thought they had removed the mold and they hadn’t and so they died?

This is from the article: > Purrington, meanwhile, has reflected on his Twinkie experience. While his father had no objection to eating moldy foods, he recalls, his mother generally treated "sell-by" dates with more respect. So I assume the top-level comment is a confirming anecdote.

The article also says that he thought the Twinkie looked fine before he ate it. So it seems that by checking how it looked and ignoring the age of the product he was in the middle-ground between his mother (respect the sell-by date) and his father (happy to eat moldy foods) :)

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#18

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

I had an older coworker who used to do this, and had no qualms eating moldy food. He had some advanced biology degrees and worked in a lab. When asked why he ate moldy food, he would reply "Most of the time the mold (some mold type) and is mostly harmless to people. The trouble is knowing what is and isn't ok to eat. Besides, I'm not letting safe food go to waste." On the other hand, I knew a foreign student who disa…

The kind of mold is important here. Mold on cheese is often not harmful to people. Mold on meat is typically indicative of stuff that will peel out your insides.
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