A childhood belief about dangerous food

My mom had 4 kids, all relatively close in ages. She had her hands full, to say the least! My sister Pamela used to “sneak” slices of mozzarella cheese whenever my mom made her famous chicken parmesan. Four kids = eight arms! After one meal where half the chicken was cheese-less, my mom decided to use a ruse to keep my sister’s fingers off the table. She told her that mozzarella cheese was poisonous until cooked. My sister, being sneaky, didn’t want to admit she’d already eaten two slices and became very frightened! She stopped eating the cheese! The plan worked, and mom was free to cook and watch the two younger kids without having to haunt over my sister’s shoulder. But my sister never forgot… and everyone else did! The white lie was caught when my sister started telling her high school friends that they couldn’t eat Polly-O string cheese because it was poisonous ‘raw’. When Pam came home to tell Mom the embarrassing tale, everyone roared with laughter. We had all forgotten that day in the kitchen, except for my sister! She carried that fear of mozzarella cheese with her for well over ten years.