Can Chickens Eat Moldy Cheese?

[cmobley]

Would you mind too much trying that hypothesis on your children ( not the babies of course) or your self? If the cheese is not to be wasted then eat it yourself and don't waste it. Seems sensible.

I might just try that maybe it'll work like penicillin after their mud puddle ice eating contest. And I'm talking about my kids. My chickens don't like eating ice.

 

[TOR]

My chickens like eating snow, maybe it helps wash down the mud puddle water and gravel from my driveway

 

[Citytransplant]

I didn't even know that chickens could eat cheese.

 

[pargue]

We have a big bag of mozzarella cheese that has mold in several clusters throughout the bag that are too hard to pick out. I’m not sure if it is safe and have looked it up. I’ve gotten mixed responses: Some say that it should be fine as long as the birds aren’t too young or old and if fed in moderation, and others saying to absolutely not feed them anything moldy as it is too risky to play around with. Our flock free ranges everyday and messes around in the compost, which is not aerated, although I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything moldy in there. They’ve eaten pieces of glass, plastic, and toxic plants, and they’ve been completely fine so far. However, I’m not sure if mold is different, but I would hate to see so much cheese go to waste! It is a full 3 lb bag! Any advice is appreciated!

Just remove the obvious chunks of mold of feed the rest in moderation.

 

[AprilsZoo]

x2. I've seen so many "articles" on yahoo saying not to freeze cheese, but I have a freezer full of shredded or crumble-able cheese, and for cooking purposes it works fine (not so great on a salad though). Certainly better than buying a large bag and then tossing it out.

I’ve never seen anything saying not to freeze cheese.

As a matter of fact, last time I got a 2-pack of big bags at Costco, I could swear it said “Use or freeze by: x date”

I was raised by a single mom with very little money.
• If there was mold on the crust of the bread (day-old to start with...) we cut off the crust. Mold on the sliced surface, toss those slices— but look at the rest to see if there’s some that’s not moldy.
• Pre-shredded cheese wasn’t a thing... But we only shredded what we needed, and if the block of cheese had mold on it, you cut the mold off, and ate the rest. Or cut it into smaller chunks or slices to freeze so it wouldn’t mold again before it could be eaten.
• Milk that didn’t smell or taste quite as fresh as it once did, but wasn’t full on spoiled, was frozen in ice cube trays, to be used in cooking, like Mac & Cheese, etc. Of course, that was only when we had real milk... most of the time it was powdered.
•. My mom also used a wooden cutting board, and flipped it over— one side for meat, the other for vegetable/bread/etc. She would wipe it with the same sponge she used for dishes, the counter, spills on the floor, etc. and then rinse it and the sponge under scalding hot water, and leave them to air dry. We never had food poisoning... rarely had any kind of tummy troubles at all.
• Raw eggs as well as hard-boiled ones were kept at room temp.

Personally, I think in many ways, we’re worse off now, with the food safety rules than we were 50-60+ yrs ago. I believe we never got sick, because we were essentially inoculated with minute amounts of whatever bacteria/pathogens were in the cutting board, sponge & whatnot. Over time, our immunity was built to these pathogens & we didn’t get sick.

How can you explain the fact that my grandmother never, ever refrigerated her butter (it lived in the cupboard)? We used margarine, but it lived in the cupboard, too. She would also fry chicken at lunch time, and pile it in a tea-towel lined basket, and any that remained, got covered by the ends of the towel, and stayed on the table all day. Until piece by piece it was eaten. If any was left, & she remembered, she’d put it in the icebox before she went to bed. But just as often, it was still on the table, & grandpa would wrap a piece or two in a hanky, and take it in his big, black lunchbox, along with a few biscuits or a hunk of cornbread, and head off to work.

 

[NatJ]

if the block of cheese had mold on it, you cut the mold off, and ate the rest.

My family did that too.

• Milk that didn’t smell or taste quite as fresh as it once did, but wasn’t full on spoiled, was frozen in ice cube trays, to be used in cooking, like Mac & Cheese, etc.

My Mom would usually make a pan of tapioca pudding when it got to that point, or use it in pancakes or waffles or biscuits. Freezing it in small portions is a clever idea I hadn't thought of, rather than having to cook it up right away.

my grandmother never, ever refrigerated her butter (it lived in the cupboard)

My family kept a stick of butter on a plate on the counter, a few more pounds in the original packages on the counter, and lots more in the freezer. I still do it that way, because it works so well: soft butter is easy to use, and frozen butter keeps almost forever.

 

[TOR]

We freeze cheese. If there is mold on the cheese and can be removed and used I will use it eat the rest.
If the cheese is getting to the point of no return I remove the mold or all that I can and feed to chickens.
If it is really bad which never gets that far here I would throw it.

 

[chickentrains]

i must of been raised different because if there is mold on my food, I throw it into compost. I cannot stomach the thought of my food being spoiled enough that it had molded.

 

[AprilsZoo]

It can be a generational thing... but also comes from necessity. If you have no money to buy more food, you figure out what you can still eat & what you absolutely can’t.

I’m sure I’ve unknowingly eaten more than one piece of moldy bread in my days. Running late to get to school, in a dimly-lighted kitchen... grab a couple slices... give it a quick once-over... nothing super obvious jumping out at me— pop it in the toaster, spread some butter and jam, and out the door before I miss the bus. A few times I noticed a slight green spot on a bit of the crust (usually on the second piece, of course).... I’d just rip that part off and toss it out the window.
I‘m still around to tell the tale, so I guess it wasn’t too terrible for me.

I taught my kids to be frugal, too. A speck of green on one bun out of the 6 in the pkg, doesn’t mean you have to throw the whole package out. One bad egg in the carton doesn’t mean the rest are bad, too. Got a bell pepper with a soft, icky spot? Cut that part out, and the rest is fine. That’s true of most produce actually.
I just can’t see the point of throwing away a big bell pepper because of a half-dollar sized bad spot.

 

[chickentrains]

It can be a generational thing... but also comes from necessity. If you have no money to buy more food, you figure out what you can still eat & what you absolutely can’t.

I’m sure I’ve unknowingly eaten more than one piece of moldy bread in my days. Running late to get to school, in a dimly-lighted kitchen... grab a couple slices... give it a quick once-over... nothing super obvious jumping out at me— pop it in the toaster, spread some butter and jam, and out the door before I miss the bus. A few times I noticed a slight green spot on a bit of the crust (usually on the second piece, of course).... I’d just rip that part off and toss it out the window.
I‘m still around to tell the tale, so I guess it wasn’t too terrible for me.

I taught my kids to be frugal, too. A speck of green on one bun out of the 6 in the pkg, doesn’t mean you have to throw the whole package out. One bad egg in the carton doesn’t mean the rest are bad, too. Got a bell pepper with a soft, icky spot? Cut that part out, and the rest is fine. That’s true of most produce actually.
I just can’t see the point of throwing away a big bell pepper because of a half-dollar sized bad spot.

Generation must have something to do with it, I am gen Z

I've ALWAYS been VERY picky. I have a very small pallet. Smells weird, has a weird bump, mold? nopee. I even refuse to eat the first or the last slice of bread in the loaf.

I doubt its too awful for you, cheese IS mold. But it doesn't look like it, which is why people carelessly eat it.