55. The Distribution of Salt in Cheddar Cheese

Abstract

1. Figures are presented which show that there is a very appreciable variation in the salt and moisture contents of small plug samples taken from different cheeses from the one vat.2. The fact that a cheese plug has to be ground to a paste before good duplicate results for salt content can be obtained is a further illustration of the variation in salt content within a single cheese, and of the slowness of diffusion of salt in Cheddar cheese.3. The extent of diffusion of salt into unsalted Cheddar cheese has been measured in two different experiments. The results show that diffusion is very much slower than in Limburger cheese, probably owing to differences in moisture content and texture4. It is well known that salt has an inhibiting action on the growth of bacteria in cheese. With variation in salt content from place to place in a cheese it is therefore to be expected that local variation will be met in the bacterial content. This may explain in part at any rate, the difficulties encountered in obtaining concordant results for estimations of number of bacteria in cheese.