I'm a heathen. I tried all kinds of cheese wraps and temperatures What works for me is keeping the cheese in the door (warmest part of the fridge), in the wrapper it came in, and a Ziplock sandwich bag when opened. Anything will get moldy if you admit spores, but it takes a very long time to develop mold in my fridge. When you see it, cut it off, clean the cheese and put it in a new wrapper. More important is not to get fingers and dirty knives in the wrapper, and just cut out the amount you want, the rewrap the remaining portion. Don't put the whole cheese on the platter if you're not going to use it up. When you do that for company, expect to use it up in a few days, or freeze it. Freezing will affect the texture, but it should be fine in cooking if it hasn't broken (leaked fat).

Cheddar is not far from where we live. We buy local off the block in a quantity we can get through before it spoils ie several weeks. It's loosely wrapped in cling wrap in the fridge. Soft cheese we keep on the counter in the original packaging. For grilled cheese we just take a slice off the cheddar. I've never used pre sliced or pre grated cheese. It lacks flavour imo. Parmesan we keep in waxed paper in the fridge.

Lars, the vacuum sealing sounds like it might solve my problem. I never thought about using for something in the refrigerator. I mispoke, the sliced cheese is actually cheddar, rather than American, and doesn't seem to be lacking flavor. I also have cheddar in block/chunk form and cheddar seems to be giving me the most problems. Will gve it a try. Thanks, all.

Vacuum sealing definitely helps. That is, after all, how supermarket cheeses are sold. But unless it’s something I really don’t think I’ll go through in a couple weeks, I just wrap in plastic. Yes I know it’s not what ”they”, or some theys, recommend but it works. I cut or grate from six sides as I use it. Might replace the plastic if it’s been a while and the cheese is showing any sign of age.

Seems to work for me, but admittedly I don’t keep large varieties on hand, so turnover of what I do have is reasonably quick.

I wrap in plastic then put that in a Ziploc bag in the deli drawer of the fridge.

I tried beeswax wrapper once -- it dried out the cheese so forget that noise.

I made my own beeswax wrappers years ago and LOVE them for cheese.

For brie, I wrap in parchment paper and put it in a ziplock that isn’t totally zipped in the cheese drawer of my fridge.

With any cheese, I make sure I never touch it with my hands. I grasp it with a piece of parchment. The knife that I cut it with is clean and hasn’t touched any other food.

Vacuum sealing is not recommended for soft cheeses such as brie, blue, Camembert, etc.

We always bought mild cheddar and that is what I buy now. We just cut off the mold, it just makes it sharper. That is what I do now. I will try the Food Saver.

I tend to keep it in the wrapper it comes in - I mostly buy it pre-cut/wrapped, and either put it in a plastic zip bag or a glass jar, once opened.

I recently read about a study that showed cheese will develop mold faster where it's been touched, so I keep my hands off by using the wrapper as a barrier when cutting or grating and it seems to help.

I will pare off moldy bits too, but haven't had that happen so much since I started keeping my fingers off the main block.

P.S. A friend shared this today and it seems apropos...

“I wrap in plastic then put that in a Ziploc bag in the deli drawer of the fridge.”

Pretty much what I do and it works nicely. We tend to eat what I buy in a short period. I do often buy larger pieces of both Parmesan and Feta. I like French Feta that comes in brine, and I store it on a sealed container in the fridge. It always seems like a lot but also disappears quickly. I’ve found that freezing Parmesan works well. I also keep the rinds in the freezer for flavor boosters for soups, stews, sauces.

I'm glad I posted this query, as I was not aware that you were never to touch cheese with your bare hands. I tend to be a bit OC about cleanliness in the kitchen, washing my hands frequently when dealing with food and cooking a meal, so never thought twice about touching the cheese as I sliced. I have used all the above methods with cling wrap, ziplocks and parchment and still had an issue, so I'm hoping if I quit touching, my problem will be solved. Thank You!

There are mold spores everywhere, especially in a kitchen. It's normal. Water kind of activates them. Your hands may be scrupulously clean, but your fingers pick up some spores from stuff--perhaps even the outside of the cheese wrapper. Plus, the cheese can pick up spores from your cheese board, or other incidental surfaces. I think slicker surfaces, like clean knives are less likely to carry mold spores. I think cutting the cheese out of the original wrapper helps. They work hard when packaging to keep it all mold free on the inside.

I've noticed my grated cheese lasts a lot longer without mold since I got my crank operated shredder, which empties right into the storage container. I may touch the block a little putting it in the hopper or emptying the last bits, but nothing like holding the cheese and rubbing it over the box grater by hand, or all the handling in using the FP and transfering the results. (I'd never considered it, or I'd have tried Bbstx's parchment holder, for the box grater, and tried tongs for emptying the food processor. I had thought quicker mold was just from it being in so much air, and necessary handling, before I saw the difference with the crank grater.)

Good luck!

I'm guessing you buy cheese in large quantities. Here, we only buy for a few days so storage is never a problem. The only cheese I buy that I keep is parmesan and I freeze that.

I have small quanties but of many kinds. It's almost unheard of to find a ripe cheese in a store, here. They're "aged" as in palatable, but like 60 days. My fridge door isn't the ideal temperature but they will ripen if one is patient. My kitchen is too warm to leave them out. The hard cheeses keep well, and need to be sourced from a variety of places, so I have a lot to not be running after cheese all the time.

We had guests at the weekend so I bought a selection pack and there was a munster. The smell was spectacular...wouldn't want it in the fridge for long lol

LOL! I can deal with munster, in plastic. There was, however, the horrible smell of vegetable rot I could not find for ripping the fridge apart and deep cleaning everything, I could still smell it...and found it as I was putting the food back. It was an innocent looking French cheese! I tried to find the name just now on a list of cheeses, but no luck. This one makes Brillat-Savarin seem to be for babies. Needless to say, I pushed it to the front of the use it up brigade. But it didn't actually pollute the fridge (which is fancy and has air filters). As soon as it was out the fridge itself smelled fine, and the other foods didn't pick it up. It was a really good cheese, but maybe not so easy on one's breath, so I haven't repeated it.

I mistook a wedge of affinois for brie. What I get for making a mad dash through the grocery. It is described as a mild, buttery, brie-style cheese. Emphasis needs to be on mild. It almost has no taste. Fortunately, it was a very small wedge. I made my favorite sandwich with it - ham, pear, and brie, or in this case affinois. It was so mild that the ham totally overpowered it. I’m going to make my favorite Ham, Cheese, and Potato Casserolethis week. I’ll tuck bits of the affinoise in.

Funny. We eat Brillat Savarin before it gets smelly. I don't think it's a cheese you should let get like that!

I didn't write that well. Brillat-Savarin when ripe is quite challenging for people who think firm new brie is too strong, but it's not the smelly one. I don't remember what that was called, but the flavor was similarly intense as the smell. It did taste good, but for people who don't appreciate brie when ripe and runny would certainly not want to eat it.

Well, there's Camembert...?