Aging Cheese

   I recently went to a nice Italian restaurant and found aged cheese on the menu. The different cheeses had different aging periods ranging from a few weeks to a few months. However, back home, I have heard of cheese getting spoiled within a few days. Finding this phenomenon interesting, I went out in search of answers on the net. Making cheese seems to be an art and a tradition, but here a few interesting things I found out:

• Dry cheese can be aged longer than wet cheese (some cheese can be aged for years)
• The diet of the animal from whose milk the cheese is produced determines the colour of the cheese(though lots of cheeses have added colours)
• Some cheeses have molds in them(especially the blue ones)
• Temperature and humidity need to be properly controlled when making cheese
• The French consume the most cheese at 26 kg per person per year(wiki)