The real reason cheese is yellow

Cheese is yellow, milk is white. What’s going on here?

While making a grilled cheese the other day, a question popped into my mind: Why is cheese often yellow even though milk is white? Of course, this isn’t entirely true across the (cheese)board — cheese comes in a remarkable range of colors, from pale white to deep yellow-orange. Take cheddar, for instance — it can be found in both shades. So which color is the "real" cheese?

To unravel this mystery, I sat down with Paul Kindstedt, former president of the American Dairy Science Association and a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont. Our conversation spanned over an hour, delving into the fascinating history of cheese, its evolving colors, and the marketing influences that have shaped our perceptions.
In the latest Vox video, we dive into it all, shedding light on the surprising connections between color, culture, and the art of cheesemaking — all in less than seven minutes.

[DJVLDN]

Title: “Why cheese is yellow”

Video intro: “Why cheese is orange”

[normalchannel]

4:06

To save money, they used SAFFRON???! What? Isn't it like one of the most expensive spices?

[N-_Hr]

Grew up in the UK, where cheddar cheese originated (Cheddar in Somerset). It's always been white to me. The idea of it being seen as yellow/orange by default is bizarre to me.

[jeannelagarde]

Me, a french woman, who literally ate white cheese 20 mn ago : "what in the devil are they talking about ?"

[youtubename]

I dont think American proccessed cheese should be in the category as real cheese

[afonsolucas]

I love these types of videos. It's the sort of video you read the title of, you tilt your head and you go: "huh...". I had never thought of it. Keeping curiosity alive.

[ebridgewater]

In the UK, we don't expect cheddar to be orange. We expect the pale yellow.

[pabloa..]

If someone is curious about it, "annatto" is called "urucum" in Brazilian Portuguese (from the transliteration of the Tupi word "uru'ku", meaning red). It's used to add color to food all over the country.

If someone is NOT interested, my bad. 😅

[geoffreyheckroodt]

The irony of using saffron in order to scam the market is just too much.

[deleted-something]

Idk, yellow is my favorite color so cool, although as someone who grew in a farming area, I was always acostumed to see and eat “white” cheese

[TheDoc]

As a French it hurts seeing the only cheese mentioned in this video are Cheddar Cheshire and Gouda…

[HowToMolly]

I mean most of the cheese we eat in Europe is white. This yellowness seems to be specific to how American cheese is made.

[tomholroyd]

Eating during the ad is an innovative time-saving technique. Since we both know I'm fast-forwarding through the ad anyway, it's a win win

[DanielleWhite]

And that explains why the time we accidentally made butter it was white. I was a dairy farm kid and one day the compressor for the bulk tank cooling system failed just after we finished the evening milking. The mechanical agitator kept running for hours because the thermostat was calling for cooling and the result was a small amount of butter...and several hundred gallons of milk that we had to dump because it had risen above the safe holding temperature.

[EnigmaHood]

Food coloring basically to meet expectations. A lot of processed foods use food coloring. Red meat is typically not red either, it looks more grey, but is exposed to carbon monoxide to make it red.

[WDSimp]

I have to imagine that a cheesemonger's business card would have holes in it, so it looks like a slice of swiss cheese.

[Moreinius]

This is why I'm confused every time I ask for cheddar, sometimes it's this color at this restaurant and then some other times it's another at another place.

[danielsemyonov]

6 min video with a 1.5 min ad. Wow Vox has fallen from grace

[charlesharper]

As a Canadian I'd always thought that Cheddar was orange.
It came as a bit of a surprise that it was always yellow or white in Australia.

[Sjalabais]

Actually quite fascinating that changing the colour of cheese is a 5-600 year old tradition. Humans want to be deceived.