Cheese ... would you chance this?

[Bluejeanz]

Actually, it shouldn’t be a case of chancing it or risking it! Years ago I had an allergic reaction to an orange cheese, I’m pretty certain it was Red Leicester. Regardless, have avoided orange coloured cheese ever since.

Desperate for something different and tasty for lunch I ordered some cheddar with oak smoked jalapeno and sweet red pepper from Tesco. In the photo it’s yellow, in real life it’s orange and smells bloody goregous. The ingredients tell me that it’s medium cheddar ... the colour will have come from the peppers, yes? Common sense tells me it will .... but it’s orange!

Anyone care to reassure me please. This is the cheese in question.

Cheers!!

Are you ok eating red peppers and jalapeños? Not sure what is in Red Leicester to make it red!

The orange is the least likely thing for you to have been reacting to, tbh. All sorts of interesting things to be sensitive to in cheese.

Anatto, a vegetable extract, is what's used to colour Red Leicester. It's used in anything you've ever eaten with orange/red colouring apart from oranges.

How bad was your reaction?

Definitely okay with red peppers and jalapenos! That’s interesting about Anatto - I’ve never actually given any thought ti what makes Red Leicster red! Maybe it wasn’t the cheese at all that caused the reaction - whatever it was caused my eyes to swell like balloons and took over 24 hrs to go down, I have just avoided r leicester since.

Okay, cheese too good to waste! Thanks.

Annatto is listed as the ingredient E160b. It is found in a lot of different foods. You can be allergic to it, but given how many different things it is found in, you would likely have had other reactions by now. You probably weren't allergic to the cheese at the time you thought you were.