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Not to disparage your housekeeping (mine is worse trust me) but you should do a big cleanout of your refrigerator.
Take out that lower salad drawer and bleach out the bottom. Wipe down all those condiment bottles-throw half of them out.
If you have a water filter is it time to change it. Spores for mold hide everywhere.
The only cheese I've had thats gone mouldy is cheese that has had colourings and preservatives added, aka that orange American cheddar cheese.
I bought a block of Dubliner Irish cheddar from Sams club last week, the sell by date is January 2017, it will probably take us a couple of months to use and although it may form a crust it won't mould.
Also a consideration is what the cheese is made from, milk in this country unless otherwise notated has hormones and anti-biotics in it and also commercial cows are fed corn based meal. Irish milk does not (those chemicals are banned in the EU) and their cows are mostly (not all) grass fed.
American cheddar cheeses (excluding the uncolored Cheddars of New York, Vermont, and other artisanal cheesemakers) are colored with annatto which has been used to color cheeses, especially the famous Gloucester and Leicester cheeses, since the 16th century.
I can't find any data that links annatto to increased susceptibility to mold, and considering the lack of refrigeration and food insecurity in past centuries I doubt cheesemakers would have compromised the longevity of their food supply with an additive that causes spoilage. Also, real cheese does not contain preservatives, cheese is a preservative, preserved milk.
Kroger Sharp Cheddar, a good representation of the mass produced, and bottom of the barrel quality, orange American Cheddar is as follows: Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes, Annatto (for Color)
Pretty much a bog standard natural cheese recipe. Of course raw milk vs pasteurized and the flavor of the milk, affected by the cow's diet, make a difference in the flavor of cheese, but I don't see how either could contribute of excess mold.
Rather, I believe moisture content, texture, and the environment in which the cheese is stored and how it is handled are the likely culprits for mold.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by toosie
I'm careful not to touch the cheese directly with my hand - even with freshly washed hands that promotes faster mold growth on cheese (in my experience). Husband doubted me til my experiment proved my theory.
^This!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RaleighLass
OP - I used to have a restaurant and can tell you that there might be two things at play here. One - you are contaminating it when you remove it from the original wrapper. Unless your knife, and any surface it touches have just been disinfected/sanitized with a bleach water solution, you are contaminating it with bacteria. Same goes for if you touch it with your bare hands. Most people don't scrub their hands with soap long enough to remove the majority of bacteria. Even is you used a hand scrubbing brush, there would still be bacteria on your hands.
^This!
Quote:
Originally Posted by vrexy
Maybe because of your technique with sucking the air out of the bag with a straw. I've never heard of anyone doing that until now. Possibly, you are contaminating the cheese with the bacteria from your mouth when you do this.
^And this!!
Seriously, keep your grubby hands (we all have grubby hands) off the cheese, keep your mouth away from it, keep it in its original package as long as possible, and use a clean knife and work surface. Remove those opportunities for contamination.
Also... 2 weeks is a reasonable time frame for any soft to semi-hard cheese to start to mold. I'm not sure why that's shocking. Cheeses with low moisture contents (parm, extra, extra sharp cheddars...) will last a lot longer, but if you're talking about your average brick of orange "cheddar," it's going to start to mold if it sits idle for a couple of weeks. It just will! There's nothing abnormal about that! Either eat it faster or cut out the outside parts as they get funky. There's nothing wrong with that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueherons
It is molding way before the expiration date.
The expiration date means diddly-squat once you've opened it. That date only counts for the unopened package, as is the case with most sealed, perishable items. Again, it's totally normal to start to get some spoilage after that package has been opened for a couple of weeks.
The best way to store cheese is tightly wrapped in tin foil. Wrap it tightly like you wrap a gift. Make sure none is showing, or it will dry out and change color and get hard.
Trust me. I'm from Wisconsin. We know our cheese.
(Plus I have a degree in Dairy Science from UW-Madison.)
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