curedmeat.com / Safety / Hazards
Mycotoxins and spoilage
Moulds
High salt and low temperature do not inhibit moulds, so a curing chamber is a good place for them.
Controls, with the source for each
| Parameter | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Deliberate culture | a commercial mould culture applied before fermentation | FSIS-GD-2023-0002 |
| Other measures | short inventory pull dates, low pH, sufficiently low water activity, antimycotics, coatings, packaging | FSIS-GD-2023-0002 |
| Removal | scrub with a stiff vegetable brush | FSIS-GD-2023-0002 |
Deliberate culture. Applied to occupy the surface and prevent undesirable moulds, and for flavour development.
Removal. FSIS does not recommend washing mould off with hoses, which can cross-contaminate from the environment onto the product.
Why it matters here
Mould on a dried sausage is expected and often deliberate. Some of it is not benign, and FSIS is careful to say that colour is not a reliable indicator of which is which.
Notes
- FSIS: dry-white mould, often seen on fermented and dried sausages, is generally considered to be a good mould because it can prevent bad mould from growing, although colour is not necessarily an indicator of bad mould.
- A few types of mould produce mycotoxins.
Steps that bear on this hazard
What this page is not
This page reports published parameters. It does not tell you that any preparation is safe. Whether a specific product met a parameter is a question about that product, answered by measuring it, and no page can do that for you.
FSIS guideline identifiers and their URLs are listed on the methodology page. CFR citations are to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9, as in force on 1 January 2026.