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It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

(www.thephcheese.com)
406 points ilikepi | 1 comments | 31 Mar 25 14:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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xattt ◴[31 Mar 25 15:20 UTC] No.43536057[source]▶
Tangential, but I recently noticed that natamycin, an antifungal agent, is being used in packages of shredded cheese as a preservative.

I was a little taken aback on seeing it, given that antibiotic stewardship has been pushed so much in the last decade.

I realize that natamycin is an antifungal and not an antibiotic, and that mechanisms of developing resistance are likely different between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. However, I’m still somewhat concerned what long-term low-level exposure will mean.

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foxyv ◴[31 Mar 25 19:23 UTC] No.43538753[source]▶
I stopped buying pre-shredded cheese a decade ago. Block cheese is cheaper, lasts longer, and cooks better. Pre-shredded is just worse in every way aside from convenience. Using a cheap rotary grater like they have in restaurants makes this almost a non-issue.
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Animats ◴[31 Mar 25 19:59 UTC] No.43539187[source]▶
> Block cheese is cheaper, lasts longer, and cooks better.

Is this a promotion for the National Cheese Stockpile?[1] The US has about 1.5 billion pounds of cheese in storage in a cave in Missouri. Really. There's a USDA welfare program for dairy farmers, and they have to put the excess milk somewhere. So it's made into cheese and stored.

[1] https://modernfarmer.com/2022/05/cheese-caves-missouri/

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1. foxyv ◴[31 Mar 25 20:36 UTC] No.43539662[source]▶
You can't really buy "Government Cheese." It used to be given out as part of food assistance programs in the US. I guess it was pretty okay cheese too. I think it's mostly given out as food assistance to other countries now since we moved over to SNAP debit cards.