What could possibly be the world’s oldest piece of cheese is being analyzed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The specimen was discovered when scientists were examining 34 pottery sieves from Poland. They were looking at the pieces to diagnose what their purpose was. They weren’t sure whether they were used to make cheese, beer or honey.
There’s no actual test for cheese, but scientists found a great deal of fatty milk residue on the pottery. They explain that this suggests the sieves were used to “separate fat-rich curds from liquid whey in sour milk.” In essence, a crude cheese-making process.
Experts say that the discovery of this cheese is a benchmark in Neolithic studies. Most people back then were lactose intolerant, so producing a food with less lactose, such as cheese, allowed them to digest the same nutrients, calories, and protein found in milk.
So how old is the cheese? Evidence compiled dates the potteries origin around 7,500 years ago. Before this discovery, experts suspected that cheese was being made in Turkey up to 2,000 years ago. This 7,500-year-old cheese confirms those suspicions and blows them out of the water.
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