Amid the shades of pale yellow, bright ochre, soft orange, and crisp white, there is nothing more jarring than seeing a shade of green in the cheese aisle at the grocery store.
Typically, grocery stores will remove stock from shelves when it’s approaching its use-by date, but it’s not always a fool-proof process.
One grocery store shopper says they were strolling through their local supermarket when they found a bag of light-colored Kraft Italian blend shredded cheese that was shot through with spots of green.
An unfortunate find
In the video with about 6,500 views, user Jhon (@qtvjhon_) says he almost bought the bag of spoilt cheese before he noticed it had turned.
“Nah, I almost bought this,” he says in the video. “That’s crazy, dawg. What? Look at that sh*t.”
The video’s caption includes a joke about being sold “the cheese touch,” a reference to the popular book and movie series Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jhon via TikTok direct message, as well as to Kraft via email.
How long is shredded cheese good for?
When it comes to perishable foods, there’s not a lot that lasts for as short of a time as dairy. Milk and yogurt are generally recommended to be consumed within a couple weeks of opening, while cheese can last for about two weeks to a month in the refrigerator after opening.
The bag of cheese may have simply remained on the shelf long enough to grow additional mold spores without being opened.
Does it matter what type of cheese?
The type of cheese is extremely relevant when determining how long it will be good for after opening. A harder cheese, like parmesan or Swiss cheese, should last about a month in the refrigerator, while softer cheeses like cheddar or mozzarella can go bad in just two weeks.
Can cutting out the mold make the rest of the cheese safe to eat?
This oft-recommended method of “saving” a block of cheese that has gone a little fuzzy can have varying levels of effectiveness, again based on what type of cheese has some extra mold.
Harder cheeses that develop additional mold—mold plays an important role in the cheesemaking process, but you might only want the amount of mold purchased intentionally—can typically be safely consumed with the molded portions removed.
Soft cheeses should not be recovered in this way, however, as mold is unlikely to be contained in one or two spots, and is more likely to spread to the rest of the cheese in the container without being as visible.
@qtvjhon_ they tryna sell me da cheese touch 👎👎 #cheese #nyc #snow #foodtiktok #store #fyp ♬ sunet original – tonilk_
How often do grocery stores evaluate what’s on shelves?
As a rule of thumb, grocery stores tend to restock on a schedule based on their size, with larger retailers stocking up to several times a week, as smaller stores might only restock their shelves a few times a week.
Based on the video, it is unclear in which grocery store the poster found the molded bag of cheese.
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