The cheese was stored in the refrigerator. On the previous day none of the brown streaks were there and some cheese was cut off with a knife.
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What sort of cheese? In particular, from the colour, is it smoked?– User65535Commented May 29, 2022 at 11:31
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One is gorgonzola; the other a hard mountain cheese. None of them were smoked.– StAgurCommented May 29, 2022 at 13:01
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1Is that maybe handmade? This could be due to a production mistake called black spot defect. Or maybe even some bacterial contamination like purple rind cheese: microbialfoods.org/curious-case-purple-cheese-rind– SirHawrkCommented May 31, 2022 at 8:53
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2 Answers
Knife or hands weren't clean, or something else in the fridge cross-contaminated it.
A simple ruleset I always follow for cheeses, as I often have many types at once in a small fridge.
Never unwrap it fully [until the very last piece.]
Use a clean knife for every cheese.
Never touch the cheese with your hands, use the wrapper it came in, or give it a new one.
After use, wrap each cheese back in its original wrapper as best you can without touching the inside. Put it in another bag, twist & seal.
Don't store different cheeses in the same container.
Be doubly careful if one is a blue cheese - unless you want all your cheese to be blue.
Cross-contamination is the easiest form of food contamination, so don't do it.
Crumbs in the butter/marmite/honey/jam is the easiest way to ruin it long before its time. Cheeses are by definition bacteria-ridden. Keep cheese even cleaner than the jam pot. Keep different cheeses separate.
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Many thanks for the answer and the tips. Cross-contamination could be the reason but any idea what it could be? The knife with which the cheese was cut was only used for eating before (not in contact with raw meat or eggs but with butter). Also I noticed that when cut off the brown parts don't regrow on the cheese. For me it is also surprising that the brown parts appeared so suddenly after one night in the fridge. This has happened to me a few times in recent years but never before. So, I am really puzzled what it could be.– StAgurCommented May 29, 2022 at 11:10
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Eating from an implement, then putting it into uncontaminated food… that's an absolute no-no. Hygiene 101. newsinhealth.nih.gov/2019/05/mouth-microbes– TetsujinCommented May 29, 2022 at 11:15
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1This is not answering the question. Is the discolouration caused by bacteria (what reaction would cause this colour?). fungi (in a day?) ot a chemical contaminant (does not sound likely from the report). Commented May 29, 2022 at 11:30
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Yes, this is what I am wondering and I couldn't find any useful information what it could be with the help of google. The knife I used to cut the cheese was only used for making sandwiches and cutting a cooked vegetable pie. While I understand that for perfect hygiene you would not use the same knife for cutting cheese and for eating (or making sandwiches) but I think it's not so uncommon and I do not have the impression that this constantly leads to contaminated cheese.– StAgurCommented May 29, 2022 at 12:09
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If you want to know exactly what it is, submit it to a food lab. Otherwise, assume cross-contamination of some sort. It might be from the knife, it might have already been in the fridge. Had you touched it? Was it individually wrapped in the fridge, was it in a communal box, or just left loose? Even knowing the precise circumstances won't give us the precise contaminant.– TetsujinCommented May 29, 2022 at 16:31
Looks like something is brewing on your cheese. Dairy products accepts odours and lingering flavours in your fridge with open arms.
If you have a lot of cheese you could consider investing in a cheese cave. Which is just a repurposed wine fridge with the racks removed
answered May 31, 2022 at 18:51
