Red cheese

[cairnterrier]

I've just been making the sauce for macaroni cheese using a mixture of Scottish cheddar and Double Gloucester so the sauce is a faint orangey colour.

Which got me wondering - on the packet it says that Annatto is added as a colouring. Historically though, would the cheeses have always had colouring and if so why and which once was used in the past?

I love this sort of wondering

but don't know the answer.

BleughCowWonders looks as though it'll just be us two wondering about this then!

On Wiki it says it used to be dyed with carrot or beet juice