They’re calcium crystals. We add a bacterial culture to Dubliner Cheese during manufacturing, and as well as contributing to the flavour it produces lactic acid. Ripening Dubliner Cheese to achieve that unique taste can take up to two years, and during that time the lactic acid combines with calcium and the result are those white calcium crystals.They add a gritty texture and enhance the rounded flavour of Dubliner. If they precipitate to the edges of the cheese block the crystals can cause a whitening of the colour too. This can be seasonal, and often it doesn’t happen at all, but it’s a completely natural process.

As cheese is a live product with the flavour changing as it matures there will always be some differences between batches. Our in-house graders check the cheese regularly over its lifetime and it is not released onto the market unless it meets our strict in-house standards.

This oil is the natural fat content of the cheese, which due to an abuse in temperature has precipitated from the surface of the cheese. If cheese and more particularly cheese slices are not kept refrigerated at all times this “oiling off” will occur. Through good monitoring at packing, distribution and merchandising this “oiling off” should not occur.

Mould is the most common problem associated with cheese. Our statistics show that 0.3% of packs will give a mould problem. Thankfully it’s a very small percentage but unfortunately it’s the average for the business.

Dubliner Cheese is a natural cheese product where a specially selected bacterial culture is used in its production. Like wine, the cheese flavour and texture and colour do vary slightly from batch to batch. Some samples show up a stronger and deeper colour in the cheese, which we refer to as an “orange tinge”.This variation in colour and flavour occurs at very low levels and in a very random manner. Every effort is made by our quality control team and our cheese graders to monitor even small variations in addition to all of the other quality checks undertaken.

Dubliner Cheese is made and matured in 20kg blocks before cutting into retail packs. On occasion a pack, which is cut from the end of a 20kg block, can have a rough surface, which is the outside edge of the 20kg block. We continuously grade cheese to ensure each block is to the correct standard, however since we look at one block in every 100 blocks this may elude our detection.

Dubliner Cheese is a mature cheese, over one year old, and as it matures different flavours develops due to the specific bacterial cultures added. They do this by breaking up the components of the cheese, such as fat and protein, into smaller fractions.These fractions all have their own individual flavour and when all are put together give the typical rounded flavour of Dubliner. In some instances one of the fractions may enhance another flavour, which on this occasion is salt.This principle of one flavour being enhanced by another is well known in the food industry and salt itself is the best-known example, i.e. it is added to magnify the flavours of the food.Here in Carbery we work to tight limits for salt addition to our cheese, 1.6% – 2.0%, and cheese is not released to the market place unless it is within this range.Addition of salt acts as a preservative and enhances the flavour.

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