Why does Bread grow Mold?

Why does Bread grow Mold?

If we keep bread unused for many days, we can observe a bluish, greenish or blackish substance growing on it. As time passes, the substance grows further. This substance is called mold, and these are clusters of living beings called Fungi. Some classified fungi is a separate group, other than plants and animals, but they are included in the plant kingdom in most of the classifications. They are separated from plants as they cannot prepare their own food. This group of living beings thrives on the matter on which they are growing. They send some small, slender, root-like structures into the source food, and absorb the nutrients necessary through those roots. These root-like structures are called Hyphae.

This fungi gets onto the bread from the surrounding air. The surrounding air consists of dust and many microorganisms. Fungus is one among them. Fungus is the singular form of Fungi. These fungi reproduce by means of sexual, asexual and vegetative methods. Spores are structures that are obtained from fungus that may have been generated sexually or asexually, based on the kind of spore it is.  Whatever it may be, the spores that come out of these fungi exist in the air around us. They can withstand adverse conditions. When they rest on any favorable substratum, and in favorable conditions, they tend to germinate and give rise to a new fungus. So the bread is also one such substratum on which the spores might germinate and reproduce the new fungus very well. Hence, we can see a soft, thick colored substance attached to the bread, which is mold.

Molds is also different colored – blue, green or black. Black color mold is tufts of hyphae belonging to Rhizopus stolonifera, which is called black bread mold. The green and blue molds are created on the bread by Penicillium camenbertii and other Penicillium sps.