/oss/taxonomy/term/767/all en /oss/article/food-quackery-you-asked/does-blue-cheese-cause-cancer <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?attachment_id=3387" rel="attachment wp-att-3387"><img alt="cheese" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2012/11/blue-cheese-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>Is it true that eating blue cheese causes cancer? That is what one of our correspondents wanted to know. Mercifully, the answer is: no. But I think I know how this story got started. Blue cheese is mouldy cheese. Originally it got that way because it was stored in caves where there were plenty of mould spores in the air, like in natural limestone caves in Roquefort in France. Since ancient times it was known that some cheeses have to be aged to develop their proper flavor. Cheese makers in Roquefort took to storing the cheese in the cool limestone caves. Then one day, a batch of cheese got contaminated with a blue mould. Some adventurous soul tasted it and liked the flavor. And seeing that he survived the adventure, others tried it as well. Soon it became one of France’s most popular cheeses.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Today Roquefort cheese is made by spraying a suspension of Penicillium roqueforti over the curds before aging. This mould needs oxygen to live so the cheese has to be porous. The cheese is usually pierced with stainless steel needles to allow more oxygen to enter. <a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2012/11/18/does-blue-cheese-cause-cancer/">Read more</a></p> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:38:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1811 at /oss