Should I eat this questionable cheese?

March 4, 2010 3:37 PM

Should I eat this? Ricotta that may be bad (weirdly so).

So I'm making a lasagna (ideally for dinner tonight), and I just opened a brand new container of fat-free ricotta. The sell by date is March 27. There are some pink spots on the top of the cheese, and a drop of pink liquid on the inside of the plastic film on top. Googling for pink mold on ricotta isn't really helping. The container itself is blue, with a little bit of orange/red for the Shaw's logo, so it's not likely to be dye from the container. What on earth could this pink stuff be, and more importantly, would you toss the top layer of cheese and use the rest? Complicating factor: I'm pregnant and following the annoying cautious-cheese-eating guidelines that already mean I can't eat soft cheeses unless they're cooked.

I can't believe I'm using my question for this. Help me, Metafilter!

posted by banjo_and_the_pork to food & drink (9 answers total)

Previously. (Wish there was a tag I could use to make that link pink.)
posted by not_on_display at 3:46 PM on March 4, 2010

It's a container of ricotta. Take it back to the store where you got it and make them give you another one.

If you are being super-cautious for pregnancy, either exchange it or get a new one. It's not just your gastro-intestinal integrity that's on the line right now.
posted by ambrosia at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2010

Don't. And I'm normally in the "eat it!" camp. But I worked at Whole Foods in the cheese dept and the only cheeses that got tossed without even being tasted were the ones with pink spots.

(That is, if a cheese had mold that wasn't supposed to be there, it got scraped to see if the mold was surface mold; it was also tasted. But the ones with pink were gone gone gone immediately.)
posted by rtha at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh hey. Shoulda previewed.
posted by rtha at 3:48 PM on March 4, 2010

Thanks not on display, I searched for variants on ricotta and pink but not cheese and pink (some librarian I am). Ambrosia, I'd love to take it back to the store but that involves a half hour drive 2 ways in after work traffic, so it won't be happening until this weekend.

Thanks everyone!
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:54 PM on March 4, 2010

Pregnant ladies should avoid eating iffy food of any kind. Especially pink cheese.
posted by fifilaru at 5:39 PM on March 4, 2010

I don't even need to read your extended explanation to answer this question: no.
posted by sickinthehead at 6:16 PM on March 4, 2010

According to the USDA fact sheet on moldy food you should toss it.
posted by 26.2 at 9:04 PM on March 4, 2010

pink if often a sign of yeast. yeast is a common spoilage organism in cultured dairy products such as ricotta. i do not believe it will kill you but i wouldn't eat it.
posted by catseatcheese at 4:02 PM on March 5, 2010