Why does cheese sweat?

We all remember it from back in the day: after fishing your bag of crushed bread (because a lunchbox is lame) out from the bottom of your bag, you discover the horror of a slice of sweaty cheese. But how does that actually happen?

Cheese contains fat. There are different fat percentages, such as 30+, 40+ and 50+. The fat and moisture in cheese become liquid at temperatures from 20ºC onwards and collect on the cheese. The fattier the cheese, the more ‘sweat’ it produces.

Keep it cool

Even though it doesn’t look particularly appetizing, you can simply eat sweaty cheese. Soft cheeses don’t sweat, incidentally, but ooze. You’ve probably seen that before on a cheeseboard, where you can spoon some cheeses up. What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing. Unless you want to lug around a cool box, that is.