Have you ever seen fuzzy green, white, or blue spots growing on a piece of old bread? That is bread mold, and it is actually a living thing! Mold is a type of fungus, just like mushrooms, but instead of growing a big cap and stem, it spreads out in tiny fuzzy threads that creep across food. Mold spores are so tiny that millions of them float around in the air all the time, even though you can’t see them. When a spore lands on a piece of bread in a warm, damp spot, it starts to grow and munch on the bread for food. Mold can grow on lots of other foods too, like fruit, cheese, and leftovers!
You should never eat moldy bread because it could make your tummy hurt, but here is a surprising fact: some kinds of mold are actually heroes! A scientist named Alexander Fleming once discovered that a certain type of mold could kill harmful germs. That discovery led to a very important medicine called penicillin, which has saved millions and millions of lives. Some yummy foods are even made with mold on purpose, like blue cheese, which gets its blue spots from a special, safe type of mold. So even though mold on your sandwich is no good, mold is actually one of the most helpful fungi in the world!
