Even with the best efforts, cheese sometimes gets a cluster of surface mold. Fortunately, it doesn’t always signal the end for the cheese. Bill Wendorff, professor emeritus of food science for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, offers a few guidelines.

On hard and semi-hard cheeses, small bits of mold, especially those that are green, blue or grey in color, can be easily and safely dispatched. He advises cutting off the molded part plus an additional ¼-inch margin around the entire surface that hosted the mold.

For softer cheeses, any toxins that the mold may have given off have greater opportunity to become more fully dispersed in the cheese. Assuming the mold is confined to a small area, he recommends removing the mold along with a more generous margin of 3/4 inch or more. If there is any question as to the overall freshness of the cheese or the extent of the molding in a soft, moist cheese, Wendorff advises that discarding the cheese may be the best solution.

Any time a cheese has any signs of black mold, a coating of fuzz or is slimy, Wendorff says prudence suggests that the entire product should be tossed.