9 ways to test cheese for naturalness at home

To check cheese at home for naturalness, you need to arm yourself with an ultraviolet lamp, iodine, and a microwave. Or rely on your eyes, taste buds and sense of smell.

Attention to the label

The first thing you need to pay attention to when choosing cheese is the label.

Natural cheese is called just “cheese”. Cheese and cheese-like products are not cheese.
Next we look down at the composition. It should not contain vegetable oil (palm or other), starch and other dubious ingredients. Cheese consists of:

• milk;
• rennet;
• fermented milk starter;
• salt.

Dyes, calcium chloride, and preservatives are often added to natural cheese. But this is more a question of quality.

In comparison, the cheese product has a completely different composition. In it you can find:

• 20% milk;
• palm or coconut oil;
• milk fat substitutes (non-dairy fats);
• non-dairy proteins;
• starch;
• flavor enhancers.

The information on the packaging would be enough to ensure its naturalness. If not for one “but”. Intermediaries, and sometimes even manufacturers themselves, sometimes give false information about the composition.They manage to sell a cheese product under the guise of cheese for 3-7 times more expensive.

If you doubt the quality of cheese, it is better to play it safe and check its naturalness using simple tests.

What do appearance, smell and taste tell you?

If you regularly eat natural cheese, it will not be difficult to distinguish counterfeit cheese. For a cheese product:

• chemical, sour, sometimes unpleasant odor;
• “rubber” consistency;
• strange taste that has nothing to do with milk.

Natural cheese consists of natural products. It smells like milk. Regardless of the variety, milky notes can also be discerned in the taste. Also, if you leave it on the counter at room temperature, it will start to spoil. After just a few hours, a hard crust will form on top. The cheese product under similar conditions remains almost unchanged.

Ultraviolet testing

If you have an ultraviolet lamp at home, turn off the light and shine the light on the thinly sliced ​​cheese slice. The test will help identify vegetable fats. If they are present, small blue spots will appear on the surface. Natural cheese should not “glow” in the dark.

Iodine test

Many dairy products have starch added. It gives additional volume and also acts as a thickener. Starch is used in the production of low-quality sour cream, cottage cheese, and processed cheese. It’s easy to check for its presence in dairy products:

1. Place a few drops of iodine on the product.
2. Wait 3-5 minutes.
3. Evaluate color changes.
4. If it contains starch, the product will turn dark blue, dark green or gray.
5. If there is no starch, the iodine will leave brown or orange traces.

Roll test

The cheese product resembles plasticine.If you start rolling it out in your hands, it will become pliable and soft. Real cheese cannot be rolled. It crumbles and does not turn into a ball, no matter how hard you try.

Melting test

Before you eat the product, do one more small experiment:

1. Cut a small slice.
2. Place it on the bread.
3. Microwave for exactly 1 minute.
4. Evaluate the changes.
5. High-quality cheese should melt evenly. It does not run down and does not become covered with greasy spots. But most importantly, it smells good.
6. The cheese product practically does not melt and has no odor.

Attention to moisture released

The cheese “sweats.” This is his nature. Pay attention to the nature of the moisture released:

• the cheese product is covered with watery perspiration;
• There are barely noticeable droplets of fat on the cheese.

What about the cost?

Natural cheese is made entirely from milk. To prepare 1 kg you need at least 10 liters of milk.

Multiply the cost of a liter package of milk by 10. This is the minimum retail price of real cheese.

If the price tag indicates a significantly lower cost, be sure that this is a counterfeit.

How can you tell if cheese is of poor quality?

The main thing in making cheese is the correct technological process. The quality of the product, its appearance, consistency, taste, color and smell largely determines ripening. A cheese head can take several months or even years to ripen. This significantly slows down production. Therefore, manufacturers often use ripening “accelerators”, or even send an unripe product for sale.

Poor quality cheese can be determined by the following signs:

• The product has a heterogeneous consistency.
• It is inelastic - it does not bend, but breaks.
• The cheese has few or no eyes (unless this is a varietal feature).

Let's summarize. Natural cheese has a simple composition: milk, rennet, leaven, salt. It has a pleasant milky smell and taste, uniform color. Cuts well. It melts when heated. Does not react chemically with iodine. If you leave natural cheese on the table, it will soon become weathered and moldy. Simple tests will help you choose a quality product that will only bring health benefits.