Penicillium Candidum in Cheese and Penicillin

[Steve Freides]

Interesting Facts about St. Andre Triple-Cream Brie Cheese from Trader
Joe's

I'm allergic to penicillin (I get hives - I was given penicillin once,
at a very young age, and haven't had it since). Since the cheese I just
bought, brought home and ate lists Penicillium Candidum as an
ingredient, and I know eating this cheese causes me no problems, I
thought a bit of investigation was in order.

From Wiki:

"Penicillium candidum is a mold in the genus Penicillium, used to make
Brie, Camembert andCoulommiers cheeses. It is related to Penicillium
chrysogenum, the source of Penicillin, but not closely enough to ward
off infection in those who consume the cheese. Allergic
cross-reactivity, however, was reported.[citation needed] An allergy to
Penicillin does not necessarily imply an allergy to cheeses made using
P. candidum.[1]"

The [1] links to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8353-2004Aug17.html

which is also interesting reading and makes me want to read the author's
book, "What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained" mentioned
at the end of the article - if anyone has done so, please post your
review here.

Steve "triple cream brie on toast for breakfast today" Freides

[Gregory Morrow]

Steve wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Nov 2013 09:42:51 -0500, Steve Freides wrote:
>
>
>
> > Steve "triple cream brie on toast for breakfast today" Freides
>
>
>

> Two nights ago surf and turf - baked potato with Saint Andre cheese
>
> and bacon bits. And those are the Le Sueur peas, BTW, which tasted
>
> just as bad as regular old mushy canned peas at twice the price.
>
>
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/sqwertz/10820749865/lightbox/
>
>
>
> Gourmet peas, my ass!


Steve HATES Joan Crawford...!!!

8-(

--
Best
Greg

[Steve Freides]

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Nov 2013 09:42:51 -0500, Steve Freides wrote:
>

>> Interesting Facts about St. Andre Triple-Cream Brie Cheese from
>> Trader Joe's
>>
>> I'm allergic to penicillin (I get hives - I was given penicillin
>> once, at a very young age, and haven't had it since). Since the
>> cheese I just bought, brought home and ate lists Penicillium
>> Candidum as an ingredient, and I know eating this cheese causes me
>> no problems, I thought a bit of investigation was in order.
>>
>> From Wiki:
>>
>> "Penicillium candidum is a mold in the genus Penicillium, used to
>> make Brie, Camembert andCoulommiers cheeses. It is related to
>> Penicillium chrysogenum, the source of Penicillin, but not closely
>> enough to ward off infection in those who consume the cheese.
>> Allergic cross-reactivity, however, was reported.[citation needed]
>> An allergy to Penicillin does not necessarily imply an allergy to
>> cheeses made using P. candidum.[1]"
>

> FWIW, I believe that pretty much all the bries and camamberts contain
> both P. camemberti an candidum. Pavane may be along to help clarify
> or disprove this.
>
> I think the only cheese molds which *may* cause an allergic reaction
> is P. roqueforti. But I'm pretty sure that medical science has
> debunked the idea that an allergy to the drug penicillin also means
> that you may be allergic to ripe cheese: they would be two totally
> separate allergies and very rare. So eat your moldy cheese with
> impunity! :-)
>
> -sw

The most interesting bit in the reading is that penicillin is some sort
of metabolite, a by-product of the mold, not the mold itself. The drug
is a thing produced _by_ the mold and apparently only under certain
conditions.

-S-

[Victor Sack]

Steve Freides <st...@kbnj.com> wrote:

> I'm allergic to penicillin (I get hives - I was given penicillin once,
> at a very young age, and haven't had it since). Since the cheese I just
> bought, brought home and ate lists Penicillium Candidum as an
> ingredient, and I know eating this cheese causes me no problems, I
> thought a bit of investigation was in order.

I think you will find very little indeed about specifically P. candidum
causing allergic reaction.

Here is what I posted twice before in similar discussions on rfc:

There is a penicillin allergy and then there is a penicillium mold
allergy. They are not the same, if only because a penicillium mold is
very different in its chemical structure from penicillin. Blue cheese
does not normally contain any penicillin, at least not any more of it
than any random foodstuff. Consider also that penicillium fungi are
often used as starters for meat products too, not just for cheese. There
is preciously little evidence that consumption of blue cheese can cause
problems for people with a penicillin allergy. A search of Medline,
Pubmed, or similar will yield very few meaningful results, the following
link being about the only example:

<http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/68/3/1211>.

Some of the conclusions of the above study:
"It is important that the commonly used cheese starters P. camemberti
and P. roqueforti neither are penicillin producers nor possess the
penicillin biosynthetic genes, which implies that they do not represent
a risk regarding the problem of the presence of penicillin in food."

Victor

[Steve Freides]

My reading is that all penicillium can produce penicillin but it takes a
bit of doing to get that to happen, and it doesn't normally happen in
cheese or other food.

I'd also guess, although I don't know much about penicillin allergies,
that if you had a really severe allergy to the stuff, then blue cheese,
etc., could be a problem. E.g., I know someone whose son has a dairy
allergy, and if he had milk in his morning coffee then kissed his son on
the cheek when he got home from work in the afternoon, his son would
have an allergic reaction - now _that_ is a serious allergy. I know
some food allergies like dairy and nuts do exist at this very high
level of sensitivity in some people - not sure if that's also the case
for penicllin.

-S-