Do not rush to add to the basket: how to quickly assess the quality of cheese before buying

On the shelves of supermarkets, you can find many cheeses, which differ in variety and level of quality. Unfortunately, however, many of these products are not real cheese, but rather cheese products.

Figuring out what is real cheese and what is fake cheese can be difficult for the average consumer. The UAportal team, together with Ukr.Media has prepared some tips that will help you choose high-quality cheese from the large assortment in the store.

How to choose really high-quality cheese

The main difference between real cheese and a cheese product is their composition. High-quality cheese is made from the milk of cows, goats, or sheep, adding starter, coagulants (for example, calcium chloride), and enzymes to curdle the milk.

Raw foods, on the other hand, mostly consist of vegetable fats. However, their appearance, texture, and color can be very similar to real cheese.

You can determine a cheese product by its organoleptic properties – smell and taste.

It does not have a characteristic cheesy aftertaste, and closer to the end of its shelf life, it may develop a bitter aftertaste due to the oxidation of vegetable fats.

Natural cheese always has a milky, creamy aroma without extraneous chemical smells.

The surface of high-quality cheese will be uniform, without cracks, smooth, and with a light shine.

Note that the number and size of holes in a piece of cheese do not affect its quality and depend on the type of cheese.

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