No matter how you store food (unless it’s in the freezer), it always get moldy eventually. How does this happen? Mold is a fungus, and fungi spread through spores, right? So are these mold spores just everywhere all the time, looking for food? If so, then does that mean that mold is on everything we eat, but it’s just not toxic until you can see it? And why does refrigeration slow down this process?
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I’m actually a mold remediation specialist, my background is in treating mold that grows in homes and businesses, but I can certainly shed some light here.
The simple answer is exactly what you have surmised: There are mold spores in every bit of air you have ever breathed. Thousands of spores in fact.
When we do mold remediation in a building, we have air sample testing done after the work to ensure we have treated all the mold. On these tests, we look to see if the mold levels indoors are equal to or lower than the mold levels outdoors at the time of testing. So even after we have professionally removed mold from a building, there are still thousands of mold spores floating in the air. And that’s because there are thousands of mold mores in every liter of air outside.
Mold needs three things to grow: A spore, an organic surface, and moisture. There are mold spores literally everywhere, food is an organic surface, and most food already has enough moisture to support mold growth. This is why almost all food, if exposed to air for a period of time, will grow mold.
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