Why is Britain falling out of love with cheddar cheese?

Sign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “But that trend has become even more pronounced now during recent harder times with people entertaining more at home and that has led to shoppers treating themselves to new cheeses as well as picking up their classic favourites like cheddar and stilton.” So the demise of cheddar isn’t quite upon us – sales only rose 4 per cent compared to 23.2 per cent for feta, 27.4 per cent for halloumi and 17 per cent for burrata, according to Ocado – and the cheese is enjoying new life in its artisanal format, with brands like Pitchfork and Montgomery’s, both from Somerset, flying off the shelves. “The whole market has been working to encourage consumers to eat more cheese as our Italian, French and Spanish counterparts would, but rather than saying ‘eat this cheese, rather than eating that cheese’, there’s more encouragement to eat both cheeses, to have variety on your cheeseboard and have a range of cheese in the fridge at all times,” says Catherine Mead, owner of Lynher Dairies, in Truro, which produces cornish yarg. And some people might say, ‘Well, you’ve been doing it a rather long time, you know, 40 odd years’, but that’s nothing in the cheese world Catherine Mead, owner of Lynher Dairies Jonny Crickmore, farmer and producer of another award-winning artisan British cheese, baron bigod, says the environmental and animal welfare benefits of artisanal cheese could also explain its sudden growth. “And the British cheeses do really, really well against all those other very established cheeses, like gruyere, parmesan, emmental, brie de meaux, mozzarella, gorgonzola.” Cornish kern, Lynher Dairies’ other cheese, came 12th last year.