Short-dated Christmas cheese

[tulips27]

I don't have much at all to spend this year for Christmas (like loads of people) but I treated myself to some "special" Christmas cheeses this week at cheaper supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl.

As I was looking at them in the fridge today, I just noticed that most expire at the very beginning of January, even the ones that come sealed in those clear plastic boxes covered in film that usually last a month at least.

I'm absolutely kicking myself because I should have been more careful; I normally check dates on everything but it's been so hectic in the shops and I didn't want to get in people's way.

Now I've got sooo much cheese and it all expires really soon, I'll probably have to give some away. It's really disappointing as usually cheese takes over a month to expire, sometimes a few months, and it's a huge waste of money for me.

Did anyone else notice lots of Christmas cheese is short dated?

In any case this is a bit of heads up for anyone else who might not be able to use it up in a couple of weeks.

Cheese doesn’t really go off - that’s kind of the point, it’s preserved cream.

I try to buy soft cheese as close as possible to the date on it because I then keep it for a couple of weeks so it tastes better. With hard cheeses I take them out of the sweaty plastic and wrap them in wax paper so they harden up and develop flavour. I don’t like blue cheese much but the latest we’ve opened a Stilton after its date was about three months. Only time I’ve been more careful was when I was pregnant so didn’t eat unpasteurised soft cheese.

In short, don’t worry about short dated cheese, eat it until it’s finished and enjoy it!

It can be tricky as depending on the type if it's too long dated it won't be ripe at Christmas. Sorry you're disappointed though.

Ah well, I think I'll stock up on biscuits for cheese and invite some people round! I never do stuff like that so it's maybe a good thing.

Yeah, I am puzzled about it because cheese normally keeps as @Escapefromcolditz pointed out but maybe it's been held up in delivery or something like a lot of things. Where I live has poor stock in general, somethings are still sold out every time you go.

Ignore the dates, they'll be perfectly good long beyond new year.

You could freeze it now and defrost the day before you want to use it - certaibly works for stilton and hard cheeses.

Or freeze half of your leftovers after Christmas day so you don't have to use it all at once?

Ignore the dates!! Cheese lasts forever when wrapped properly, that's the whole point of cheese in the first place. Unless you're pregnant I wouldn't even give a single thought to whatever regulatory process required a date on the wrapper - it's irrelevant to the deliciousness of the cheese

As long as the packets are sealed properly, cheese doesn't go off for months after the date, there's no rush at all.

I think my record is feta that was 8 months out of date, tasted fine.

Even if there's a bit of mould, just cut it off and eat the rest, but honestly, those with an early January date will probably be good until at least Easter.

The reason they put an early January date on them is that they don't want it hanging around in the shops into next year when everyone is doing Veganuary or healthy eating or just using up Christmas leftovers/trying to reduce their spending, so cheese sales probably plummet.

Use this knowledge to your advantage, there's usually loads of bargain reduced cheese in the shops in the week from late December until just after New Year.

I think start of January is fine. It was probably produced ages ago to be perfect at christmas.

I almost bought a small Stilton cheese from Fortnum and Mason as a gift. Fortunately checked the use by date - 10th December this year!!!

Most hard and blue cheese is already months, if not over a year old as part of the production process.

Or if it's brie style cheese, it usually isn't even ripe by the time the shops declare it 'out of date' and sell it off, ridiculous.

They probably put that date on as an arbitary date of a year or whatever, or alternatively to stop people buying it in the sale last year to give this year.

Oooh freezing is a good idea, I could freeze one block just to take the pressure off.

@BarbaraofSeville but they have it for sale this December with a use by date well before Christmas!

Cheeses like Brie or Camembert freeze perfectly well, they just won’t ripen further once defrosted, so freeze at the point you like them.

Hard cheeses freeze fine.

@tulips27 you really don't need to freeze it! Just think about how cheese is made - it's stored for weeks, months - sometimes years - to mature it.

It wouldn't make sense for it to suddenly go off!

As someone has already said - freeze it.
i know what you mean though. The Lidl aisles have been full of perishable Xmas stuff for weeks, since early November at least. I was wondering who buys Xmas food so early. It’s annoying as there are normal items that you can’t buy as there’s no space on the shelves.

As others said - the dates don't matter. As long as it's not completely mouldy it's fine. I used to scrape mould off cheese at university and eat it! I don't think they should put dates on anything apart from meat and fish

Does it say best before or use by?

Yes because it's marketing ploy to make everyone buy a replacement because they think they can't eat it...

I wouldn't worry too much about the date on cheese, other than maybe soft cheese like Brie that will mature somewhat! I bought a reduced festive cheeeboard from Morrisons yesterday that was BB today, its nearly all hard cheese though in sealed packets so I think will be absolutely fine.

Use by!

I don’t even look at the dates on cheese!

How much cheese do you have ? I mean we buy a lot and it all gets eaten though DH can keep his Wensleydale with cranberries in all go himself uuggh.