How to Store Cheese

If you’re investing in top-quality cheese, you’ll want to keep it fresh for as long as possible. But what exactly does that mean? 

“My aim is to prevent the cold air in the fridge from drying up the surface of the cheese, while preventing molds and yeasts from other foods [from establishing] themselves on my cheese,” says Carlos Yescas, an award-winning cheese expert and author. “I also want to prevent the spread of molds between cheeses. I don’t want my Brie to start growing blue mold from the Gorgonzola.”

Here’s exactly how to store those blocks and wheels — and what to avoid. 

Why you shouldn’t wrap your cheese in plastic 

Though most grocery-store cheese is sold tightly wrapped in plastic, this is a poor way to store it at home. Cheese needs air and moisture, but not too much of either. Although the low humidity of refrigerators can dry out cheese, plastic wrap can trap moisture and “suffocate” the cheese, leading to mold growth and off flavors and textures. 

Yescas suggests removing any plastic-wrapped cheese from its plastic immediately, and lightly scraping the cheese to get rid of any microplastic particles or slimy residue from the surface. He then recommends transferring it to one of the options below. 

3 better ways to store cheese

Glass airtight container 

“As cheesemongers, we have unlimited access to things like Formaticum cheese paper, but I don’t think everyday consumers need to spend extra money when they can use what they probably already have at home,” says Elyse Hoang, deli manager and buyer for DeLaurenti Food & Wine in Seattle. 

She suggests reaching for the airtight food storage container that you likely already have in your kitchen. Ideally, use a glass container, as plastic can transfer odors to and from the cheese. 

“The airtight container works well for soft, semi-firm, and hard cheeses,” says Hoang. 

Yescas uses a glass container with an airtight lid for hard cheeses like cheddar and manchego, which can dry out quickly with less airtight methods, though he adds it’s a good storage solution for any type of cheese.

Cheese paper 

If you’re serious about your cheese collection, you might consider buying the aforementioned Formaticum cheese paper, or a similar product. This industry favorite presents the best of both worlds: Like parchment paper, it allows cheese to breathe, and like wax paper, it helps to keep the cheese from drying out. Unlike many parchment and wax papers, it is also compostable, biodegradable, and recyclable. 

Yescas uses Formaticum to store blue and soft cheeses, helping them hold their shape and preventing odor or flavor transfer between cheeses, but notes that it will also work for any other cheese. Wrap your cheese like a gift, ensuring the edges are folded in tightly, or buy Formaticum’s cheese bags for even easier storage. 

Hoang adds that a specialty cheese shop might send you home with a good storage solution. “We wrap our semi-firm and hard cheeses in butcher paper that’s waxy on one side to help seal moisture in, so I always recommend customers reuse it.”

Small cheese cave

For the real cheeseheads, Yescas suggests a small cheese cave from Cheese Grotto, which he uses for soft rind and bloomy rind cheeses such as Brie or Camembert, mostly to keep those attractive edible rinds visible and appetizing. It emulates a modern cheese cave with a temperature range of 45° to 60°F, and doesn’t require you to wrap your cheeses at all. What’s more, it can be stored on the counter (where most cheeses will keep in perfect condition for a week) or in the fridge (where they’ll last from three to six weeks, or even longer in the case of hard cheeses like Parmesan and aged Gouda).

How long does cheese last? 

Once they’re opened from their original packaging or cut from the larger wheel at a cheese shop, fresh and soft-ripened cheeses will keep at least a week if stored properly. Blue, semi-soft, and semi-hard cheeses will keep two to three weeks, and hard cheeses can last a month or more. However, as with most foods, fresher is better.