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Types of Cheese

Cheese Classifications

Cheeses may be classified by:

  • Country, region or town of origin
  • Variations in production techniques
  • Milk type
  • General characteristics such as flavour, size and texture
  • Physical properties such as shape and appearance
  • Chemical composition and microbiological criteria
  • Moisture content


Cheese Types

Using European styles as a guide, Australian cheese classifications have been developed to suit the Australian cheese industry.

Click on each link below to read about each Australian cheese variety:


What's in a Name?

1. The Region

Some Australian cheese companies use their own regional names to identify their products. In other cases, regional names have become generic and no longer reflect the region after which they were named.
The cheese style is usually included in the name as a guide to the cheese type.

2. Farmhouse Cheese

Cheese made on the farm using milk produced only on that farm.

3. Farmhouse Style

This denotes cheese made on the farm or smaller factories using their own milk and other local milk. The cheese is generally handmade.

4. Specialty Cheese

Specialty cheese refers to all cheeses other than bulk Cheddar, Mozzarella or Processed cheese.

5. Reduced Fat Cheese

 In Australia, this label indicates the cheese has at least 25% less fat than the regular cheese of the same variety.

6. Low Fat

A 'low fat' cheese typically has no more than 3% fat content.

7. Processed Cheese

Processed cheese is a blend of natural Cheddar cheese of different ages, melted and cooked with emulsifying salts and water.
The hot molten cheese is then extruded, packaged and cooled. Processed cheese slices are cooled rapidly and thus have a shorter shelf life and require refrigerated storage. Block processed cheese is allowed to cool slowly over 24 hours.
As it remains hot for several hours, it has a longer shelf life and is stored without refrigeration.

8. Rindless Cheddar

Around 1950, a new technique for making rindless cheddar was introduced to Australia.
It involved hooping the curd in rectangular blocks and sealing the cheese in waterproof wrappers to produce large blocks of rindless cheddar.
This process, which keeps the water in (to stop cheese drying out) and oxygen out (to prevent mould growth), revolutionised the cheese market. It forms the basis of the bulk Cheddar industry today.


Overview of Cheesemaking Regions in Australia

  • Map of Australian dairy regionsCoastal NSW, Bega Valley & Hunter
  • Valley
  • Gippsland
  • West Victoria
  • Murray Valley (Vic), Riverina (NSW), Fleurieu Peninsula &Murray Bridge
  • South Australia
  • Western Australia
  • Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland, Coastal &South East Queensland
  • Tasmania