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Blue Cheese Mold
Penicillium roqueforti is a common saprotrophic mold (family Aspergillaceae) of soil, decaying plant matter, silage and spoiled food, and the mold used to make blue cheeses such as Roquefort, Stilton and Danish blue. It tolerates cold, low oxygen and weak acid preservatives, which suits it to cheese and makes it a spoiler of refrigerated foods, bread and silage. Genome studies show separate domestication events for Roquefort and other cheese populations.
Eaten in blue cheeses. Strains can make mycotoxins: PR toxin breaks down in cheese to the less toxic PR imine, roquefortine C is normally too low in cheese to cause harm, and non-Roquefort cheese strains cannot make PR toxin. Wild and spoilage populations produce more PR toxin, so this mold growing on other foods is spoilage, not food.
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