Who Made Cheese and Other Fun Facts

A world without cheese would be a sad one indeed.

But thankfully cheese is all around you: in stores, on sandwiches and burgers, baked into pizzas and pastas, and founds in most fridges. Cheese is everywhere, but how much do we really know about it? Here are several facts you may not have known about cheese.

Cheese is Older than History

The origin of cheese predates recorded history. Historian and cheesemakers agree that the first cheeses were probably created by accident by the transportation of milk in containers made from animals. Shards of pottery dated around 5,500 BCE were found pierced with holes, hypothesized to be cheese-strainers show us that cheese has been in production for a very long time indeed.

Cheese is Made with Stomach Juices

Rennet, an ingredient found in almost all cheeses, comes primarily from the stomach lining of cows, and is required for the curdling process. Because of the limited availability of access to this resource, alternative sources have been searched for at least since Roman times. Rennet can also be extracted from certain plants, mold, and even genetically modified bacteria and yeast. Soft cheese, such as cream cheese, is usually made by curdling with acids instead of rennet.

Biggest Cheese Consumer

If you believed the biggest consumer of cheese was America, you’re off by a long shot. Greece consumes the most cheese per year with 63 pounds of cheese per person, about three fourths of it being feta cheese. Second place is France with 54 pounds per person. We then have Iceland (53 pounds), Germany (48 pounds), Italy (44 pounds), and then the Netherlands (40 pounds). America only consumes an average of 31 pounds of cheese per person, per year.

How Much Cheese Made Per Year

According to a 2012 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, over 20 million metric tons of cheese are produced world-wide every year. That’s over six pounds of cheese per person alive. Cheese production is more than coffee, tea, tobacco, and cocoa bean production combined.

The Amount of Milk in Each Piece of Cheese

Cheese comes from milk, but just how much? When you eat a piece of cheese, do you think it’s equivalent to drinking the same amount of milk? Not even close. The average piece of cheese takes ten times the amount of milk to make. Most of the volume is lost during the processing of the curds, where the extra fluid—now basically water—is drained or pressed out of the curds.

The Most Popular Cheese

Mozzarella is hands-down the most consumed cheese on the planet. The name is somewhat of a misnomer, as several Italian cheeses are incorrectly given the name, and many “mozzarellas” made outside of Italy (the birthplace of mozzarella) is made with cow’s milk. Traditional mozzarella is actually made with buffalo milk—the Italian water buffalo to be exact–and the authentic cheese is protected under EU laws to preserve their “protected designation of origin.”

Were you surprised by these cheese facts? Delighted? Kind of weirded out? If you’re like us, you love cheese. Endless varieties, endless trivia, and a whole lot of deliciousness. If you’re interested in getting your hands on some cheese, favorites made locally in the state in country to exotic imports, come on down to Julio’s and check out our Cheese & Gourmet Shop right here in the store.