Although its growth at retail has slowed down in recent years, the natural cheese category is still gaining yardage. Dollar sales in the total category rose 1% to $12.9 billion during the 52 weeks ending Aug. 12, 2018, data from Chicago-based market research firm IRI show. Unit sales increased 1.5%.
Cheese is a fermented product, which means that cheesemaking requires the growth of millions of bacteria, we call them starters (to start the acid development), to acidify the product. Initially, these bacteria originate from the raw milk itself (cow, milker, equipment, etc.).