10 February, 2014

We want you to get started making cheese, not just any cheese but awesome cheese. 

With that being the goal, from time to time we do end up with expired products on our hands, they are rarely sent from our supplier with a full year on the product. All cultures are still packaged for commercial cheese makers who use these products very quickly thereby negating the expiry times. We are still juggling these factors for smaller home cheese makers.

So you, the home cheese maker, will likely be faced with questions over what to do with leftover expired culture at some point.

Here's our philosophy on expiration dates...

If you store your culture in the freezer, then your culture will have the longest shelf life and perform well. If you are in doubt and want to be extra-sure that you are getting the same result, you can add a pinch more of the culture per milk batch- however this is an extra step that is not a 'must'. 
It is our experience, that cultures don't 'die' on the exact date of expiry. They are a living thing and they tend to gradually slow down over time. 

Making cheese with expired culture will cause you no harm. We have experienced and have had cheese makers report that cultures work well past the date of expiry, years past their expiration. 

• Tweet