General information about Swiss cheese
From grass to cheese
One cow will eat approx. 50 - 70 kilos of grass and give around 251 litres of milk each day. Some animals produce even more than this. 10 - 12 litres of milk are needed to make one kilo of cheese. This means that one cow can "produce" approx. 2 kilos of cheese per day and will continue to do that for an average of 40 weeks a year.
Food safety and cheese quality
The Swiss food laws and the corresponding industry regulations oblige dairy producers, cheese manufacturers and cheese trading companies to introduce specific safety measures designed to guarantee food safety in their operations. In order to maintain the naturalness and purity of Swiss cream cheeses, soft cheeses, semi-hard and hard cheeses strict quality controls are carried out in accordance with EU guidelines.
Cheese as part of a healthy diet
Cheese is one of our most nutritious staple foods, along with milk and other dairy products. It contains a lot of high value protein, easily digestible fat and numerous vitamins and minerals. Cheese is particularly important as a source of calcium.
No other food delivers as much of this particular mineral, which is so crucial for healthy bones and teeth. Just 40 g of semi-hard cheese or 50 g of soft cheese delivers around a quarter of an adult's daily calcium requirements.
How should cheese be stored?
When pieces of cheese are well wrapped they can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for a long time. One good solution is to wrap each piece of cheese in foil or cling film and place it in a well sealed plastic container. Vacuum packed cheese can be kept in this way once the original packaging has been opened.
Soft cheese is normally kept in the fridge in its original packaging. To see how ripe it is, simply press your finger gently into the middle of the cheese. In its early stages it will still be quite firm but as it ripens it will become soft and runny. Storing the cheese at room temperature will speed up the ripening process.
In order to allow the cheese to develop its full aroma it should be taken out of the fridge approx. 1 hour before serving (except in the case of cream cheese). However, the cheese should only be unwrapped just before it is due to be eaten so that it does not dry out.
"WFF" and "F/DM"
The main factor in classifying the hardness of a cheese is its water content. The more water contained in a cheese, the softer it will be. Conversely, the more dry matter there is in a cheese, the harder its consistency. The dry matter is comprised of fat, protein, lactic acids and various salts, vitamins and enzymes.
In order to classify a cheese in the correct category for international trading purposes, a water fat free (WFF) analysis is done, which measures how much water the fat free matter of the cheese contains.
Water evaporates as the cheese is stored. The fat content is therefore not related to 100 g cheese but to the percentage of fat in the dry matter (F/DM).
