OK, WHERE DID THE HOLES GO??

Mystery of Swiss Cheese’s Disappearing Holes Solved

Swiss cheese has been losing its signature feature, the holes that speckle the popular product. Now, scientists have found out why.

Researchers at a Swiss agricultural institute learned the holes in cheese like Emmentaler or Appenzeller are created by tiny specks of hay. When milk is maturing into cheese, the “microscopically small hay particles” form the holes.

The reason the cheese’s holes have been slowly disappearing is because of the milk used to make it, which is cleaner than the dairy of the past. As dairies switched over from barn milking methods to automated, industrial milking, the hay specks, along with the holes, have disappeared.

During tests, the researchers were able to regulate the number of holes in the cheese by adding different amounts of hay dust to the milk, reported St. Louis Post-Dispatch