Why is cheese yellow?

Answer 1

Cheese made with lots of cream (ie: butterfat) is naturally a pale yellow. So consumers identified yellow cheese as being high quality, creamy cheese. So, the merchants started adding anatto and other things to color even the low-quality cheeses to make them more appealing. Some went overboard, and we got orange cheese.

These days, there are laws regulating how to make cheese and informing the consumer exactly what it is there. But people still want their orange cheese and yellow cheeses, so the artificial coloring is still added.

Although, in some places, the cheese is made without colorings (look at feta, for example), and will range naturally from pure white to a pale yellow.

I make cheese (without additional colorings).

Answer 2

That's a good question so I had to look it up. However, some cheese is white, swiss cheese.

Milk contains a yellow pigment, ß-carotene, which is derived from grass. Cows eat grass to make the milk. The colour is not soluble in water and is thus present in the fat fraction of the milk. When making cheese, the fat is more concentrated, which results in a more yellow colour of cheese as compared to milk.

Answer 3

I found this website that had answered this question. And since they are experts I decided to just paste their answer here.

This is a good question. I didn't know the answer to this one myself until I moved to Wisconsin ("America's Dairyland", home of "cheese-heads").

Most cheeses are naturally white or pale cream in color. The bright orange and yellow cheeses such as cheddar, American, etc. commonly found in the supermarket are dyed with a natural coloring called annatto. Some regions (such as Vermont, in the United States) prefer not to color their cheese and are proud of their white cheddar and other varieties.

In a related topic, it is also a common misconception that whiter, lighter colored cheeses are less fattening, contain less cholesterol, or are in some way healthier. You can see that this is not true since the orange and yellow cheeses are usually different only because they are colored with annatto.

Answer 4

Because of added food coloring. For example American cheese is naturally off-white but it's dyed. Apparently someone decided that would be more appetizing. A few years ago "white American" hit the market and they charge extra for it. Nice, huh?

Cheese comes in many varieties and colors.

Answer 5

Listen to a podcast called "Geek Farm Life". They're talking about cheesemaking this week.

Answer 6

Not all cheese is, duh!