What's going on with cheese?

[ilovebagpuss]

So sorry, to ask such a dull question but I can't take it anymore. Why is all cheddar suddenly disgusting slimy blocks of plastic cheese? OK I'm not talking M&S but Sainsburys, Aldi and Lidl "extra mature" is all disgusting.
I've spent about 3/4 quid on a block and it's too foul to eat. It's not off or mouldy its just non tasting rubber.
Can anyone explain why this is? Shortage of something ?

I've found my people!

I made pizzas last week.

The cheese didn't melt on top but I couldn't cook it longer because the pizzas were well cooked

I buy this and it really varies. Sometimes very plasticky other times lovely and crumbly. It seems to be more plasticky than not lately though. I wonder if the plasticky version has more water and is cheaper to produce or just has not matured for long enough.

But why,when it's so tasteless,am I still stuffing great chunks of it into my mouth ?

It's not just cheese; other produce is going off quickly nowadays.

A relative works in the food industry and told me that they are struggling to get hold of the specialist cleaning chemicals they need to sanitise marge machinery. As well as that, the energy costs for high temperature processes are leading to the temptation to cut corners and save costs.
The result is that products have higher bacterial counts and go off quicker.
I've noticed similar with fresh vegetables; they are going off really quickly, due to cost-cutting in refrigeration and chilling. Long delays for lorries coming in to the country post-Brexit, are part of the picture too.

So not only is food getting more and more expensive, it is lower quality and making more waste.

Oops!
Should read LARGE MACHINERY

I don't seem to have this problem. Although, as a cheese lover I'm prepared to buy premium brands. Our local Tesco has a lot of choice of English and continental cheeses. I usually buy Cornish cheddar if I want cheddar.

The Snowdonia Cheese Company make cracking cheeses - Black Bomber cheddar and Red Storm Red Leicester are really tasty. I buy these at food markets and food festivals.

I think you are buying low fat cheese. I bought it once a few years ago, and it was rubbery, horrid and didn't melt. I just buy Tesco or Lidl cheese now, and they're fine. Lidls cheeses are Wyke farms if you check the boxes.

Blimey I've awakened the cheese people 😀
It is a disgrace though as Liz would say. I feel like it's the last cut in many small cuts to my quality of life (lighthearted I know it's just cheese)
I actually put the block away for cooking in disgust but I might just chuck it as it really isn't worth cooking with.
Yes it was the Wyke Farm one from Lidl as someone had family on the inside.
It might be palm oil too I will have a look.
I think I will have to just buy a smaller chunk and spend more at a deli or farm shop. I just want that nice dry, slightly crunchy cheddar bite.

I love the Snowdonia one but money is tight at the moment and in the past the middle price cheddar has always had a good bite amd was fine for family shopping.
It's not off or mouldy and definitely not a low fat one it's like a block of the plastic cheese slices made into a cheddar form and if you hold a slice it bends like rubber.
I noticed a cheddar shortage for a while so it could be that it's just not being left to mature enough?
The answer is always spend more but like most people I'm just disappointed with a lot of standard products turning shit.

Cheese matters. As much as gravy....

(not as the same time though of course)

Tesco mild cheddar has gone the same way, and it’s the only cheese my kids will eat.

Nope. Full Fat all the way.

but even if people are, people are noticing a change in their usual cheese. It's not because they've changed what they buy,

Gross.

You're not putting black bomber in the kids packed lunches though are you? It is a disgrace.

I use yo love a cheese and pickle sandwich or cheese and tomato, but have really gone off them as they just weren't tasting the same, I thought it was just me maybe going off cheese. I also noticed the not melting properly.

ugh reading this thread has made me sad that proper cheese looks long gone. unless you can afford to buy the expensive stuff.

The not melting properly thing has been going on for a while, it's impossible to find anything that will melt and bubble up nicely! Everything just holds its shape and dries out. Making a decent cheese sauce is really difficult.

I don't think it's low fat cheese problem as I too buy the full fat stuff. Same brand used to taste differently and used to melt properly now it's horrible. I legit thought it was just me! I agree with produce going off quickly and finding more mould. It's so depressing as food is one of the few left pleasures of life.
After no bread, flour or pasta now this shit. Whatever next?

This is interesting. I've not eaten dairy in 7 years now but what you're all describing sounds like the vegan cheeses.

They're made oftentimes with oils like coconut, or they're a soy concoction. We don't eat it much but there are some nice ones but yes they're waxy and they do melt but not like dairy cheese and don't go golden.

Do you think they've switched you to plant-based as per the global agenda?

www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/plant-based-diet-biodiversity-report/

Slightly off the topic of Cheddar, but I’m a fan of Double Gloucester and haven’t been able to get it for AGES but got a packet yesterday from Morrisons. Haven’t tried it yet - but what are people’s experiences of DG and where the hell has it been all these weeks? Thank you.

Does it say anything other than "cheddar cheese (milk)" in the ingredients list?

Waitrose extra mature 6 cheese seems ok. I noticed Asda extra mature was slimy some time ago though.

we need a cheese expert STAT

Yep. One of my dc who is the least fussy of the three recently asked me what had happened to the cheese, and refused to eat. Thought he was just being weird until I grated some onto my hot chips for cheesy chips treat when I couldn't fancy anything else. Urgh. It was like grated candle wax. And the price has rocketed!

Yes - I would also like to know why dairy seems to have increased far more than everything else. Did the cows get an above inflation payrise?!

Just to clear up some of the posts about Brexit and legislation regarding food. At the minute we have retained all EU food regulations. We don't get any amendments, but as far as I can see we haven't missed any that would cause this issue.

This may all change with the conservative plan to deal with all of this retained legislation, but as yet, nothing has changed legally regarding the composition of cheese!

I suspect this is a result of costs being cut, while still offering the product at a similar price as before.

I popped into Lidl the other day to buy a garlic flatbread. It was dry, had hardly any butter or garlic. But it hadn't gone up in price, so it seems to be like they're trying their hardest to keep customers bills the same, which means skimping on the expensive ingredients.

Very interesting link! I would imagine most cheesemakers have switched to using vegetarian rennet, although possibly they needn't bother given vegans wouldn't touch cheese made with cows' milk anyway. The number of vegetarians who aren't vegans must be quite small, although I note that I've seen a lot of people in that category very disappointed that they can't find cheese dishes in restaurants. Must be tough deciding what to put on a menu, given most people who go out for a meal probably want to eat meat or fish, and then you've got much smaller groups who want vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free food. It must be tempting to look for one or two dishes that all three of those groups can eat, and that means knocking out cheese, eggs and cream.

In the interests of research <ahem>, I've just eaten a bit of Ocado extra mature cheese and it was very good, strong and crumbly. I've not melted it, admittedly. Oddly, several of the most recent reviews on the Ocado website say it's gone rubbery. The M&S extra mature cheddar has better recent reviews on Ocado.