John A. Lucey is a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the director of the Center for Dairy Research.
Fresh, squeaky cheese curds are a popular and delicious snack here in my home state of Wisconsin. National sales numbers for natural cheese curds have steadily increased to around $52 million in 2021. However, fresh cheese curds are still predominantly purchased in the Midwest. We are fortunate in Wisconsin that we have many local cheese plants and therefore access to fresh cheese curds. This isn’t the case in most parts of the U.S. Here at the Center for Dairy Research (CDR), we are beginning research to hopefully increase the accessibility of squeaky cheese curds to consumers across the U.S.