FOOD NEWS
Plastic Wrap Isn't Your Friend When Storing Cheese
By Julia Mullaney
When it comes to storing cheese, Saran wrap may not be the best option since removing cheese’s access to air can negatively affect your dairy product.
Cheesemonger Carol Johnson told Food & Wine that cheese wrapped in plastic could cause the plastic flavor showing up in the product.
Wrapping cheese in tight plastic affects its flavor and inhibits the release of its natural gases, with no room for oxygen to get in.
For the best results, you can store cheese in cheese wrap to allow oxygen to ripen the outside of the cheese, as well as remove moisture and gas.
The wrap you use depends on the cheese you’re storing, as moldy cheese requires a less porous wrap to allow a small amount of oxygen, but still let gases escape.
If your cheese is a washed rind and stored in a more humid environment, you'll want a more porous wrap because you'll need additional moisture to escape.
Since cheese prefers a humid environment to a dry one, store your fresh cheese in the vegetable crisper drawer, which is the most humid part of your refrigerator.