How harmful is cheese that's gone bad?

If the cheese is pre-sliced, it’s probably done. If it is a brick of cheese with mold, simply cut away the mold and use the cheese. If you want to keep the cheese longer, wipe it down with vinegar before you put it back in the refridgerator. That keeps the mold away. I prefer apple vinegar for this.

Most cheeses grow mold and it can be trimmed off, within reason. Not if it is marbled with mold, obviously. If you didn’t see mold, it’s probably okay, but, to be extra safe just pitch it. I don;t know if shredded cheeses are treated with some sort of preservatives, but if the cheese was just on the stale side I wouldn’t worry about it. Cream cheeses, cottage cheeses and other soft cheeses are more perishable than hard cheeses.

Am I the only one who read that it was pre-shredded?

If you mixed it all together, smell and taste very carefully (can I infer that you already cooked the lasagna?) when it cools down to see if it still smells off. The cooking and high heat may have killed off the ickiness.
I hope you feel OK, if you get sick it should be fairly soon after eating.

@canidmajor I mentioned wondering of shredded cheeses have preservatives to enhance freshness or aesthetics and prevent molding.
I have never seen shredded cheese go moldy or “bad”, so maybe the smell is actually the normal smell. haha

You may or may not get sick, it probably depends how long it had been bad.

You say …had gone bad – it smells off… but you don’t say if it was visibly moldy.

I buy shredded cheese mixes for omelets and tacos. @Coloma I have seen the shredded mixes turn moldy, but that may be because I buy organic cheese.

“I now realized that one of the packages had gone bad.”

Have you baked and/or eaten the lasagne? That’s not clear.
Is there any sign of the shredded cheese being bad other than off odor? Spoiled shredded cheese should have moldy clumps, usually with green mold in my experience.

The choice is yours:
Err on the side of caution. or
Just eat it

I like to cook the hell out of my lasagne (blends the ingredients/flavors more), so I’d eat it.

@zenvelo I do too, usually, but my cheese doesn’t last long enough to get moldy. haha

I’d eat it. Worst case scenario I get a tummy ache and lose a few pounds. Win/win, really.

If the cooked lasagna smells “off”, then pitch it. Feed it to the dog if you simply can’t abide the total waste. Dogs’ stomachs can handle a lot worse food than we can, and “slightly off” lasagna isn’t going to hurt a dog. (He’ll love you even more, in fact.)

“When in doubt, throw it out,” is one of the few dicta that I do live by. I’d rather waste the time and expense of throwing out “iffy” food (and I am cheap to a legendary degree) than spend (potentially) days recovering from the self-inflicted agony of food poisoning. Been there; done that; ruined the T-shirt, the rug and the sheets in the process.

If I see shredded cheese with mold starting in it, then I pitch the lot. Same reasoning as above. If I can see it, then there’s more started that I can’t see. Brick cheese, as noted above, I just scrape off the visible mold and continue to use. (And place in a new container.) The advice from @Espiritus_Corvus is interesting; I’ll have to remember that for next time.

That’s one reason I very seldom use store-bought shredded cheese. I use brick cheese for most everything except pizza, and use the manual shredder liberally.

EDIT / ADDENDUM: Apparently, the Mayo Clinic agrees with me on the advisability of tossing the cheese.

An off odor in a pouch the cheese came in is a clear signal the cheese has turned and IMHO the meal should not be consumed especially if kids are to partake in the meal. The airspace in containers is responsible for allowing smelly esters to accumulate that are the harbingers of something that has or is moving towards a spoiled state.

My old boss would eat 2 day old pizza that was still on the table in the lunchroom unrefrigerated and be just fines albeit a bit on the gassy side.

LMAO…smelly esters.

@Coloma Did you mean smelly Esthers? lol!

@Cruiser Eat at Smelly Esthers. Get Gas. lol

The cheese in the bag with the off-odor? Was it unopened when you started? Was the bag swollen or bloated?

The first sign of spoiled cheese is loose or bloated packaging.
I will not buy or use any moist food product with swollen packaging. Bacteria produce gas, and gas swells the packaging. Can, bag, wrapped tray, sealed carton…nope! I won’t have any part.

If the cheese bag was new, unbloated, and free of visible mold, I would eat.

@Coloma Come on down to Auntie Esther’s cheese and wine bar Happy Hour…not allowed to return for at least 48 hours

I really doubt you will get sick. I’m going to give you 95% chance you don’t get sick. Put it out of your mind.

Let us know what happens 24 hours from now.

Edit: I’ll add the bacterias that are most likely to make you sick from cheese die when cooked. Botulism, which I bring up because someone mentioned a swollen bag (usually that bacteria is associated with cans bulging) doesn’t grow well in cheese. I’m not saying other bacterias might not swell bags, probably they do, I’m only saying the super scary bacteria botulism is extremely unlikely in this situation. Botulism has no odor, which is part of the problem with that bacteria.

Cheese is spoiled when you get it from the store. That’s what makes it cheese. If you can, slice off the excess mold and pig out!

Recap: I made (and ate) lasagna with pre-shredded cheese bought that same day. I didn’t notice it being off because I used a mix of several cheeses, and I assumed the stronger smell was due to that.

After dinner, I re-opened the package of cheese to use for something else. I also opened a second bag I had bought. Comparing the two, it was very clear that the smell had to be mould.

That’s when I asked this question. If I’m going to get sick, I like to be prepared.

However, all I got was a bit of belly pain. The lasagne was very good, and thanks to all of you for chiming in!

If the lasagne was very good the tiny belly ache was probably from overindulging!

Or it may not be a bacteria and just be a mold. We tolerate a great deal, unless you have a compromised immune system or are pregnant. The biggest problem is that shredded cheese isn’t just cheese these days. Manufacturers are putting in wood cellulose and palm oil at higher than recommended or industry standard levels. I don’t feel comfortable saying, ah it’s just a harmless cheese mold because it could be anything these days.

^^Interesting. I’m going to look at ingredients. Are those things out in the cheese in a high enough content that’s it’s listed?

The palm oil should be listed but the cellulose amount came out in an spot industry test. Google and you should find it. The results were made public.

[Mod says] Moved to Social.

@ibstubro I controlled myself. Barely.

@cazzie Scary. In this particular incident, the cheese I bought was organic. I’m hoping it really was just cheese.

In America studies have shown Organic produce to have more bacteria than non-organic. I have no idea how good the studies were, but it’s something I used to hear. The levels might still have been well below requirements, and might have nothing to do with cheese, but I thought I’d mention it.

Sometimes I’ve had shredded mozzarella that smells a little off or moldy. Maybe the shred makes it more susceptible since there is more surface area? Just a guess.

Sooo…
The moral of the story is that shredded cheese that has an off odor won’t kill you if cooked sufficiently?

I mean, we had moldy cheese cooked in lasagne that the OP cooked, ate, and lived.

What’s the take away, now that the event has passed and the OP is fine?

@ibstubro Ya never know…maybe @longgone is long gone now. lol

@longgone lived to move to Social, @Coloma. She couldn’t have been @gonelong?

Organic Valley uses wood pulp in its shredded cheese. http://www.foodrenegade.com/would-like-some-wood-pulp-your-shredded-cheese/

Still alive, thanks!

@cazzie Your link is reassuring. My cheese was full-fat, definitely clumpy, and I understood every bit of the label. I’m also happy to hear that wood pulp is not necessarily harmful, as I’m sure I’ve ingested it at some point.

Food tech is sort of my thing. I worked in NZ with a couple of manufacturers.

I always thought it would be fun to be a food stager photographer. Okay, off topic mind blip over. haha

A bit off topic, but Sargento recalled cheese due to contamination. So if it’s Sargento, watch out. I don’t know why I was throwing up yesterday but my cheese was store brand.