How Does Cheddar Cheese Get Its Color?

One of the things that distinguish cheddar cheese from the other cheeses (in addition to its flavor of course) is its color. While most cheeses are traditionally light in color, cheddar is almost always yellow or even a bright orange. Although people enjoy cheddar’s distinctive color, not everyone knows where it comes from or what the difference in color is. Well the most important thing to know about the color of this cheese is that it is not naturally that way; instead the color is produced using an all-natural dye. Here is how exactly cheddar gets its color as well as information on why it was first dyed.

The Dye

We already know that cheddar cheese is not naturally yellow and most certainly not naturally orange, but the good news is that the color of the cheese does not involve chemical additives such as those in other colored products. Instead, this coloring is all-natural. The cheese is dyed using annatto which is a coloring additive that comes from the achiote tree, a tree that is common in South and Central America’s tropical regions. Annatto is actually the name of the seeds that are then ground up to be used as a natural dye.

Uniformity

Part of the logic behind coloring cheddar cheese is to help create uniformity. This is because the cows that produce the milk which is made into cheese can greatly affect the color. It all comes down to the amount of beta-carotene that is produced by the cows and included in their milk. Cows that eat in the pasture (such as in the olden days when cheese was first created) will have higher levels of this nutrient during the spring because of their diet of fresh grass. This will produce cheese that is more yellow. In the winter, however, when they have less beta-carotene in their diet, the cheese made from the milk will be whiter.

Sales

Another reason that cheddar cheese was traditionally dyed was to increase the sales. When cheddar was first produced, most of the cheeses at the time were white. People who bought cheese liked the richer flavor of the yellow cheddar that was produced from cow’s summer milk. Cheese manufacturers quickly realized that by adding a bit of color to white cheddar (or other cheeses for that matter), buyers would associate it with that better quality yellow cheddar and be more inclined to buy, paying higher prices.

Variations

Today you will notice that not all cheddar cheese is one color. Some are yellow, while others are white or even that deep orange. The white cheddars are the ones that do not include the coloring additive annatto. Yellow cheese will usually include the standard amount while the deep orange cheddar cheese will have an extra bit of annatto. Because the annatto doesn’t affect the flavor, the differences all come down to custom. The yellow and orange varieties are popular because that is simply what people expect to see when purchasing their cheddar cheese and while the white cheese is more natural, it is not necessarily any different in taste or healthiness.