Food Chain: Decomposers and Apple Pies

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I had a thread about the speed of bacteria on A2K in the past. How fast can bacteria move from the floor to a piece of butter-down toast that landed on it. Akin to the 5-second rule - is it instantaneous? Does it happen fast or slow? How do bacteria move from the floor to the buttered toast?

Now I am am wondering about food rotting in the fridge, on a washable-reusable container, for example. If left-over apple pie starts to mold. Mold is decomposing the apple pie. Mold is also multiplying. More mold eats the apple pie. At some point, apple pie no longer exists in the pie pan. And there is no more food for the mold.

So eventually, rotting food which may, for the sake of this discussion, make you sick to your stomach will become non-rotting, crusty crud. Is this crusty crud safe to eat, then? And, what is it? Mold waste? Does anything grow on/feed on crusty crud/mold waste?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 378 • Replies: 13

Consider blue cheese...

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i think it wouldn't be harmful... but it wouldn't be tasty either.

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Quote:

Does anything grow on/feed on crusty crud/mold waste?

Apple trees feed on mouldy crud, otherwise known as compost.

Thats the beauty of the cycle.

WOOOP WOOOOP WOOOOP

spelling police coming through make way

Mold has a U in the middle. Would you kindly stop butchering the English langauge.

I just love the way merriam webster says mouldy is a British variant of mold. I think they mean Moldy is an American variant of mouldy

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The reason most bacterias make you ill is not the bacteria itself, but the toxins the bacteria produce as a by product. Those toxins are still present after the bacteria have moved on to the great bacteria heaven. (Mold has a different heaven where "the fields of cheese and bread extend unto the horizon.") Therefore, don't eat the crud.

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Engineer - THANKS! That makes sense and is good to know.

Mr. Aussie Man, Webster was an American. So there.

So, yes, bacteria and mold are different beasts. Mold sends out spores, yes? So, even when the parental food source is depleted (would Osso's bluecheese eventually be consumed by the mold or is it stabilized somehow?) it shoots it's seed across the room.

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Bacteria don't necessarily (or even often) die without food, they just go dormant. Some (like Clostridium tetanii, perfringens, and botulinum and Bacillus anthracis) even sporulate, and spores have been put into the vacuum of space and been capable of germination and have been recovered and cultured from glacial ice that has been frozen for tens or hundreds of thousands of years.

Fungal spores also are very hardy. Maybe this is why it's so damn hard to get rid of mildew in the bathroom...

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Pdawg - thanks! Also very informative. Who's in your new avatar? A basking whale?

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Grouper, I think.

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I wish I could see it better!

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Why, were you contemplating eating eat when you saw your pie gone?

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Re: Food Chain: Decomposers and Apple Pies

littlek wrote:

I had a thread about the speed of bacteria on A2K in the past. How fast can bacteria move from the floor to a piece of butter-down toast that landed on it. Akin to the 5-second rule - is it instantaneous? Does it happen fast or slow? How do bacteria move from the floor to the buttered toast?

Now I am am wondering about food rotting in the fridge, on a washable-reusable container, for example. If left-over apple pie starts to mold. Mold is decomposing the apple pie. Mold is also multiplying. More mold eats the apple pie. At some point, apple pie no longer exists in the pie pan. And there is no more food for the mold.

So eventually, rotting food which may, for the sake of this discussion, make you sick to your stomach will become non-rotting, crusty crud. Is this crusty crud safe to eat, then? And, what is it? Mold waste? Does anything grow on/feed on crusty crud/mold waste?

If you post stuff like this, you're going to have a difficult time getting people to come to dinner at your house. Shocked

Food Chain: Decomposers and Apple Pies

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