More on yellow cheese; why are some cheeses white and others yellow?

Although we brought up the subject of yellow cheese in the book, we failed to answer this often-asked question. A woman at our presentation at the Adirondack Museum was the latest to pose it. We responded that the coloration of yellow cheeses is produced by annatto, a plant-based dye imported from Mexico. And we repeated what we had read—that the yellow dye was first used to conceal imperfections in poor-quality cheeses. “What kind of imperfections would those be?” The woman asked, stumping us this time. We said we suspected a pasty appearance or an uneven, splotchy coloration might have been responsible. We were able to report, again based on our reading, that white cheeses tend to be favored in eastern North America, and yellow cheeses increasingly predominate as one travels westward.

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