Why are some cheeses orange?

November 2018

Have you ever stopped and thought are cheeses naturally orange in colour? The truth is, milk does not contain a naturally occurring orange pigment, and therefore cheese in its natural state is a white or yellowish colour. The cheese obtains it orange colour hues by the addition of a yellow-orange carotenoid called annatto.

Annatto is obtained from the outer coats of the seeds of the tropical shrub Bixa Orellana (native to South America) and named after Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish conquistador. Annatto is widely used by cheese manufacturers to colour cheese and it is added directly into the cheese milk at the start of the cheese making process. Different concentrations are added depending on the cheese recipe and/or variety.

Interestingly, during the manufacture of coloured Cheddar cheese, approximately 20 % of the annatto added is lost in the whey stream (but that’s another story for another day), with 80% remaining in the cheese curd (Zhu and Damodaran, 2012). The use of annatto as a colourant does not have any direct influence on the flavour of the cheese. However, many people apparently believe that coloured (‘red’) cheese tastes better than its white counterpart of equivalent quality (Fox et al., 2017).         

So how did a South American plant come to be colouring traditional British cheeses such as Leicester, French classics like Mimolette and traditional Irish Red Cheddar cheese? It’s certainly not a recent practise as it is believed that it occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in southwest England where cheese makers would use colouring agents such as turmeric, carrot juice and even saffron.

It wasn’t until the 18th century that annatto was discovered among the imported goods from South America and consequently, annatto was used as standard to colour the cheese as it had less effect on the flavour and texture of cheese.

Changing cheese colour

But what was the rationale behind adding annatto to the cheese? Well, back in the olden days, it was well understood that cows fed on a pasture-based diet in the spring and summer months produced a flavoursome yellow milk (due to the carotenoid Beta-Carotene found in the grass) which contributed to the cheeses superior flavour profiles, thus indicating a higher-quality cheese.

On the contrary, in the winter months the cows were not out on pasture and their feed consisted of silage and hay that contained very low levels of the Beta-Carotene carotenoid, resulting in variations in the natural yellow colour of milk. Therefore, annatto was used by the cheese makers to compensate for changes in availability of carotenoids, as annatto can maintain a uniform colour in the cheese (Picon et al., 2013), In addition, annatto can also be used to disguise the translucent appearance which can occur when producing low-fat cheeses (Wadhwani and McMahon, 2012).

To conclude, cheeses such as British Leicester, French classics like Mimolette and traditional Irish Red Cheddar cheese are characteristically white (excluding the grass-fed cows), but generally some people have a preference for the orange cheeses because it seems to taste better.

Catherine Wall, Lab Technician

References

Fox P.F., Guinee T.P., Cogan T.M., and McSweeney P.L.H. (2017) Overview of Cheese Manufacture. In: Fundamentals of Cheese Science. Springer, Boston, MA, pp 11-25.

Picon, A., Alonso, R., Van Wely, K. H. M. & Nuñez, M. (2013). Microstructural, textural and colour characteristics during ripening of Hispánico cheese made using high-pressure-treated ovine milk curd. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 6, 3056-3067.

Wadhwani, R. & Mcmahon, D. J. (2012). Color of low-fat cheese influences flavor perception and consumer liking. Journal of Dairy Science, 95, 2336-2346.

Zhu, D. & Damodaran, S. (2012). Short communication: Annatto in Cheddar cheese-derived whey protein concentrate is primarily associated with milk fat globule membrane. Journal of Dairy Science, 95, 614-617.