When do you have to throw away the cheese?

Dairy products do not have to be discarded even if the best before date has expired, as long as their quality remains adequate.

But how to recognize if a product is spoiled? With milk it's easier. If it tastes sour or bitter or a consistency similar to that of flakes, it should be discarded.

However, UHT milk can spoil without smelling bad. Therefore, if it tastes stale or bitter, it is best not to consume it, as explained by the German initiative “Too good for garbage!”. This same initiative provides some advice and reveals, for example, when it is no longer possible to save a cheese.

Mold: can be cut into hard cheese, but not soft

cheese - Fresh cheese, sliced cheese and softer cheeses such as camembert or brie should be completely discarded if infested with mold. This is because in soft cheeses, fungal mycelium is more likely to spread to the deeper layers.

Toxic fungal substances, such as mycotoxins, can also penetrate soft cheeses more easily. Noble molds such as roquefort, gorgonzola or camembert are left out of this aspect.

- In the case of hard cheeses such as emmental, alpine mountain cheese, cheddar or parmesan, a slight mold infestation is no reason to throw them away.

That is, the harder the cheese and the lower its water content, the safer it is to remove mold by cutting off a piece. But in order to do this, the surface of the cheese must hardly sag and be dry. If mold is found on more than one part of the cheese, it is desirable to throw away the cheese whole.

Usually, when cheese has a bad smell, changed its appearance a lot or seems sticky, it is best to throw it away. To prevent the formation of mold, it is most convenient to place it on the middle shelf of the refrigerator in separate packages, such as wrapped in sandwich paper.

It is also important to prevent breadcrumbs from sticking to the cheese, as the yeast in the bread causes the cheese to mold faster.

dpa