So… I have a tub in my fridge of what WAS fresh mozzarella. It says use by December. I just opened it and sniffed and tasted it. It’s certainly no longer fresh mozzarella, but it doesn’t taste terrible as some sort of cheese.
Is this safe to eat?
(Yes, I ate a little bit. But disease tends to be dose dependent. Hopefully if it goes bad in a dangerous way, it’s not bad enough to kill me.)
Most cheese keeps pretty well. But most cheese isn’t intended to be consumed immediately. Any advice welcome.
(For covid-related reasons I don’t plan to do any shopping for another couple of weeks, so please don’t advise me to just replace it. I mean, I can replace it with PB&J, I’m not going to starve. And it’s not fresh mozzarella at this point anyway. But really, I don’t like to throw out food unless it’s bad or I know that no one wants to eat it. So I want to know whether it’s safe to eat, not be told I shouldn’t ever eat anything past the expiration date no matter what.)
Fresh mozzarella is not a dry cheese and does not improve with age. It may or may not have been made with a live culture. Genuine fresh mozzarella is only good for days, but packaged products may last longer. Once opened it is recommended that fresh mozzarella be consumed within 1 week. Without more detailed info about this particular product I wouldn’t eat it. I’m a bit picky about fresh food, but from a safety standpoint you are taking your chances.
Most cheese is very dry and salty. This came in water, and is quite moist (although also salty).
I’m not generally super-cautious about eating old food if it looks and smells okay. But this has been in the fridge for a long while, and isn’t something that was “designed” to keep.
I have definitely kept “fresh” grocery store mozz too long. The kind shrink-packed in a smidgen of water. I’ve eaten 2- and 3- week old mozz with no ill effects. Once the texture starts to go, it won’t be edible much longer. I’d say the OP is safe unless they’re feeding someone with health problems. But it won’t last much longer.
It eventually gets a patchy pale green or pale yellow sheen and smells obviously “Don’t eat this or you’ll barf all afternoon”. That takes more like a month after you break the seal, not a week.
Dairy products tend to very obviously go bad. I’d say if it smells okay you’re probably fine.
If you were worried, I’d make a homemade pizza and melt this on top. Adding some heat would at least phytologically make me feel better about it even if it’s not hot long enough to sterilize it.
If I had a strong (or even normal) stomach, I’d go for it, since it was unopened and still tastes okay. Dairy is generally one of those things that is still safe to eat even after it goes off. I wouldn’t expect it to be bad for you, just possibly disagreeable if your stomach is weak.
If I wanted to mitigate issues, I might spread it out. And I’d probably use it melted–but that’s because that’s when I think mozzarella tastes best, not because I think the heat would make it any safer.
But your post thinks you lost a letter! It says it was made by puzzlega. (Not as I quote it, apparently, but in the header of the post itself. Just that post – your others in the thread all show the final l.)
That’s the oddest side effect from eating old cheese that I’ve ever seen. Hope you don’t disappear altogether.
I’m a great advocate for letting hard cheeses get older, and have enjoyed 30+ year old cheddar. But soft cheeses have a much shorter shelf life and can go bad. If moldy, they should be discarded, NOT trimmed of mold. You can get away with that with a cheddar, etc but not a bufalo mozerella or epoisses
This cheese is not moldy. It looks fine. It smells fine. It doesn’t taste like fresh mozzarella, but it doesn’t taste bad, … a bit like cheap mozzarella, a little too salty. Okay.
