Yorkshire's Wensleydale Creamery has come up with some top cheese facts to mark British Cheese Week and some may surprise you.

  • There are around 700 named cheeses made in the UK.
  • Cheese is bought by over 98% of British households.

    3 February 2015.......    Cheese making at the famous The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes deep in the Yorkshire Dales. Picture by Tony Johnson

    Cheese making at the famous Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, deep in the Yorkshire Dales

  • We consume around 700,000 tonnes of cheese a year.
  • Cheese has been part of the British diet for centuries.
  • Virtually every household in the UK buys cheese and, in a recent British Cheese Board survey, 65% of adult respondents said that cheese is one of their favourite foods.
  • The word “cheese” comes from the Latin caseus, which probably grew out of the Indo-European root kwat-, which meant to turn sour.
  • Hard cheese is a source of calcium with a matchbox-sized piece providing a third of an adult’s daily requirement for calcium. Cheese is a source of vitamin B12, which you need for red blood cell formation.
  • A connoisseur and lover of cheese is called a ‘turophile.’
  • Many cheeses benefit from Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. To be classified as a protected food and awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), a product must be produced, processed or prepared within a specific geographical area and bear qualities, features or a reputation that is attributed only to that region.
  • Under European law, Stilton has Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. This makes it unlawful to sell it unless it’s made in specified areas, i.e. the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire.
  • Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese has now achieved PGI status will ensure that no other cheese-maker outside the designated area can produce a cheese and call it Yorkshire Wensleydale.

Visit their website: www.wensleydale.co.uk

About The Author

Yorkshire's only dedicated food and drink website from Yorkshire Post Newspapers and its sister titles in the region. Showcasing everything Yorkshire has to offer from the fruits of the sea to the fields of the moors and beyond. It includes unbiased restaurant reviews by renowned food critics, recipes and 'how to' videos from some of Yorkshire's finest chefs and latest food and drink news and blogs from around our amazing county. And you can have your say either on the site or via our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Let us know what you think

comments