Strange mold

[ericrice]

That's what I took from it as well - no such thing as good mold ONLY, just varying degrees of different strains and toxcicity. However wash or remove casing and all is good. i know it may not be quite that straightforward but that was what I took away....

[wheels]

Likewise.

Phil

[ericrice]

Approximately 45% of these samples were positive for the presence of OTA. On the casings of the investigated sausages, the lowest and highest OTA values were 3 and 18 mg/kg, respectively. The OTA concentration was reduced to below the limit of detection (LOD) by brushing and washing the sausages prior to sale. From these data it appears that the presence of OTA on the surface of sausage (on
the casings) is not indicative of any health risk for human consumption of sausage, since OTA was not identified inside the dry meat.

So in fairness not all were found to have toxic molds and...

According to our data, we suggest a method in which the
sausage casing is brushed, then washed in order to reduce OTA and
eliminate the potential risk to consumers’ health.The growth of
these abundant ‘‘contaminating’’ moulds depends strictly on the
technological process used. However the best methods to limit the
presence and the growth of toxigenic moulds on the surface of dry
sausages are to control the temperature and relative humidity
during the sausage production, as well as the careful selection of
protective mould starter cultures

I would say the recommendation is that inoculation of known good molds is recommended.

In summary this appears to be along the lines of using bacterial starter cultures to significantly increase the chances of nothing going wrong - but also appears that with surface molds even if mycotoxins are present on the casing, washing/removal will result in a safe product anyway. I think I got that right now.