Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles from Organic Valley Family of Farms Review

I'm not normally an eater of blue cheese, although on a few rare occasions I've eaten a few crumbles on a salad or steak. My wife likes blue cheese though, and was happy when I brought home a 4-ounce container of Organic Valley Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles, which neither of us had ever tried. Not only did my wife, with her greater experience with blue cheese, thoroughly enjoy the blue cheese crumbles from Organic Valley, but I too had a second taste another day beyond the tasting we enjoyed upon first crumble.

Organic Valley Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles at the World Dairy Expo

Now that I'm penning this organic blue cheese review, I'm not surprised to read on the container top, which I hadn't seen before finishing the blue cheese, Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles placed first in 2006, 2007 and 2008 at the World Dairy Expo.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm typical of many persons; my taste buds just don't agree too much with blue cheese. You have to have a somewhat refined palate or one that is already specially inclined toward blue cheese to enjoy its taste. Yet after tasting Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles, I'm now more apt in the future to have another salad with their organic blue cheese, since it tasted better than blue cheese has ever tasted to me.

Organic Valley Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles Notable Nutrition Facts

Many of us know cheese has a goodly amount of fat to it. Organic Valley Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles is no exception. A one ounce serving contains 70 fat calories; 8 grams of total fat, of which 5 grams is saturated fat. Not unusual either is the amount of sodium in this organic blue cheese: 380 milligrams, or a daily value of 16%.

Organic Valley Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles Ingredients

An interesting ingredient in Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles is penicillium roqueforti. Just what is penicillium roqueforti though? It sounds very similar to the penicillin given as an antibiotic. In short, it's fungus; and yes, it's close in nature to the same penicillin now given throughout the world as medicine.

Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles not surprisingly also consists of organic milk, cheese cultures, salt, microbial and animal enzymes.

Is Blue Cheese Bad for You?

The blue you see in blue cheese is a very visible fungus (mold), which is why some whom know what it is stay away from it, or at least that part of the blue cheese, believing such mold (fungus) has to be bad for you. But is it bad for you?

According to one published scientific analysis report on blue cheese in the Penicillium RoquefortiFinal Risk Assessment by the U.S. EPA( 1997 ), "Scott ( 1981 ) believes 'no potential acute human health hazard can be extrapolated from the amounts of roquefortine present in blue cheese.'"

Conversely, in summary, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says, " However, until more is known about roquefortine, the amounts produced during commercial handling and its stability, it cannot be considered to be without some potential hazard to human and/or animal health."

Have scientists and the EPA more recently concluded anything about the hazards of consuming blue cheese? I don't know; but what I do know is that I'm a part of the population that's allergic to penicillin and I was feeling quite sluggish and a general malaise on a couple of occasions over the last few weeks. Whether that has anything to do with penicillium roqueforti is questionable, since I didn't take note of if it was after consuming blue cheese.

Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles from Organic Valley Family of Farms Review Conclusion

However the scientists slice it, it crumbles the same way for me: I did say I like Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles more than any blue cheese I've had in the past, on the rare occasions I've eaten blue cheese; and that I would eat this particular blue cheese again at a later date. I'm still not crazy about blue cheese though. Perhaps unbeknownst to my readily conscious self, my not liking blue cheese too much is because I'm allergic to penicillin and as a whole that particular fungus group is disagreeable to me.

On the other hand, again my wife really likes blue cheese, especially this blue cheese. Therefore, as sure as the sky is blue, before a another batch of blue cheese ripens-blue cheese is generally ripened for three months in storage at 48 to 53 degrees Fahrenheit ( 9 to 12 degrees Celsius )-I'll block a bit of time to take with me one of the coupons the good folks at Organic Valley sent to us and pick up another four ounce container of Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles for her.

Sources:

Organic Valley Family of Farms Organic Blue Cheese Crumbles, http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cheese/crumbles/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Attachment I Final Risk Assessment Penicillium Roqueforti, http://epa.gov/biotech_rule/pubs/fra/fra008.htm