# Brie Cheese - White part is Penecillin ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 31, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889 "2004-05-31T04:41:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889/1 "2004-05-31T04:41:56Z")

</div>

I love Brie cheese and just for curiosity I read the labels on the packiging. Funny enough it says the “white crust” of the cheese is penecillin !

Searching the net… I found a PDF about fungi. It seems Brie Penecillin is different from the antibiotic one… my question is:

People who are allergic to the antibiotic are allergic to the Brie cheese white part ? Is this Brie Penecillin an antibiotic in anyway ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889/2 "2004-05-31T04:57:57Z")

</div>

I’m an expert in neither antibiotics nor cheese, but I don’t think the white part is penicillin per se - it’s probably a strain of the penicillium mold, which makes penicillin. There’s a whole family of them, some of which make way, way more penicillin than others. I doubt the one used in making Brie is one of the few that make any large amount of penicillin, so you’d probably have to be extraordinarily sensitive to the drug to have any bad reaction to the cheese.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Critical\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889/3 "2004-05-31T05:25:12Z")

</div>

Allergic to penicillin here. And every other antibiotic I’ve ever been prescribed. Live in fear of them - very sensitive.

Not allergic to Brie or the white part. Or blue cheese. Not a lot of experience with other molds.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889/4 "2004-05-31T20:00:35Z")

</div>

> [@qwest](#):
>
> Allergic to penicillin here. And every other antibiotic I’ve ever been prescribed. Live in fear of them - very sensitive.
> 
> Not allergic to Brie or the white part. Or blue cheese. Not a lot of experience with other molds.

Sorry to hear about your allergy… and happy my Brie Cheese won’t kill my friends.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brie-cheese-white-part-is-penecillin/247889/5 "2004-05-31T20:44:23Z")

</div>

Like **GilaB** said, the antibiotic penicillin isn’t a mold. It’s a substance derived from a strain of the mold.