How to eliminate mold growth from your charcuterie

Quite often we asked about mold control on charcuterie. Mold is something that we should take seriously, especially if you are going to be eating it.

Mold spores are everywhere and unless you are a mycologist and can differentiate between the good mold and the dangerous mold I wouldn’t risk it. Certain molds produce something called mycotoxins (fungus poisons). These mycotoxins are invisible and have the potential to cause disease or even death in some cases. The problem with these toxins are that they are accumulative. So eating one thing with mycotoxins is probably not going to kill you but if you do it often the effects are compounding. What this means is that you will most likely not have any symptoms until it’s too late.

With that being said there are plenty of good molds that actually work for you in charcuterie. One of those molds is called Penicillium nalgiovense. This is the while mold that you’ll typically see on the outside of salami. This mold is quite beneficial to the salami and the overall charcuterie process. It helps balance the pH, it aids in the drying, it adds a complex flavor, and most importantly it covers your charcuterie protecting it from other harmful molds. This mold can be bought under the name Mold-600 and I use it in almost all of my projects.

So what do you do if you are allergic to penicillin or you simply don’t want any mold to grow on your charcuterie. The answer is very simple potassium sorbate. Potassium sorbate is used in the food industry as a preservative and it’s typically added to food to control mold, yeast, and bacterial growth. For salami we don’t want to kill the beneficial bacteria growing inside so this isn’t an ingredient that we are adding to the salami. This is more specifically a dip solution or a spray solution that we are adding to the exterior to control mold on the outside of the cured meats.

Potassium sorbate mixed at a ratio of 1:10 so for every ounce of Potassium sorbate that you use you will need 10 oz of water. Stir to dissolve and either generously spray it on your meat or dip your meat into this solution. Allow the solution to dry on the meat (don’t wipe it down) and that’s it!! Mold is going to have a very hard time growing on your charcuterie. You can always reapply if you happen to see any mold creeping in…

Here are a few things that we use when making fermented sausages

• Casings
• Mold 600
• Flavor of Italy
• Apera pH Meter with Bluetooth
• T-SPX
• Dextrose
• Cure #2
• Sausage Stuffers
• Meat Grinder
• InkBird Controllers temp & Humidity
• Dehumidifier Eva Dry 2200
• TaoTronics Humidifier

If you want to see the different things that we use in operation our be sure to check out our new Amazon Store.

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