Vacuum Bags for Cheese: Cutting, Portioning and Storing

Cheese is the product vacuum packing was almost designed for. Hard cheese has no bones to puncture the film, it keeps for months once the oxygen is gone, and a tight clear pack shows the cheese off. It also has a couple of traps, mostly to do with rinds and moisture. Here's how cheesemakers, delis and farm shops get it right.

Which cheeses suit it

• Hard and semi-hard: cheddar, Lancashire, Cheshire, Red Leicester, gouda, manchego, parmesan. Vacuum pack these without a second thought. The pack stops the cut face drying and stops mould, and the cheese keeps maturing slowly.
• Blue: Stilton, Shropshire Blue, gorgonzola. They pack well but the blue needs a little oxygen to stay blue. Use 90 to 95% vacuum rather than full, and don't expect a pack to last as long as a cheddar.
• Waxed or clothbound: pack the cut pieces. A whole waxed truckle doesn't need a pouch.
• Bloomy and washed rinds: brie, camembert, taleggio. Full vacuum crushes them and suffocates the rind, which turns ammoniac. Low vacuum at most, and many producers use breathable cheese wrap instead.
• Fresh cheese, curds, halloumi in brine: a chamber machine handles the liquid without pulling it into the seal, which is one reason halloumi producers use them. Keep the seal area dry.

Sizes for cheese

Cheese comes in squarer shapes than meat, which is why the square pouches exist.

Cut	Pouch	Per bag
100g to 200g wedge	150×200mm	1.4p
250g to 400g block or wedge	200×200mm	1.8p
1kg block, half a small truckle	250×250mm	2.8p
Quarter of a 20kg wheel	300×300mm	4.0p
Half wheel, 5kg block	400×400mm	7.2p

Everything above is 65 micron. Cheese doesn't need thicker film. For retail, the gold pouches with a clear front and hanging hole suit 200g wedges on a hook, and the parchment pouches suit a branded truckle piece.

Getting a clean pack

1. Pack cold. Cheese at 4°C from the maturing room, not from the bench. Warm cheese sweats inside the film as it cools.
2. Dry the cut face. A quick pat with clean paper. Moisture on the face is what turns into the pooled liquid people complain about.
3. Keep the seal area clear. Fat from a cheddar on the inside of the pouch opening will stop the seal. Fold the top of the pouch outward while you put the cheese in, then fold it back.
4. Full vacuum on hard cheese, 90 to 95% on blue and crumbly. Lancashire and Cheshire crumble at the edges under full vacuum.
5. Press the pack after sealing. Tight and hard is right. Any give means air, and a slack cheese pack goes mouldy on the face within a fortnight.

Shelf life

Hard cheese is outside the FSA's 10-day rule for vacuum-packed chilled food, because its water activity is below 0.97 and it doesn't support the bacteria the rule is about. Cut cheddar in a sound pack is routinely given 8 to 12 weeks chilled and keeps far longer than that in practice. Blue and softer cheeses get shorter dates. The food safety guide explains the rule and where cheese sits in it.

Machine

Smooth pouches, chamber machine only. A small tabletop machine is the standard tool in a cheese room and handles every size above. If you're sealing with a FoodSaver-type edge sealer, our pouches won't work in it. The compatibility guide explains why.