Milk and Meat - Enzyme-Modified Cheese

QUESTION: I have heard that food technologists can now accelerate the aging of cheeses. Is this true, and would I have to wait six hours after eating such an “aged” cheese before eating meat?

ANSWER: As of the last twenty-five years, many cheese products contain a flavor that is known in the dairy industry as “enzyme-modified cheese.” This is created by a process in which a fresh cheese curd is treated with special enzymes under specific heat conditions to produce a cheese flavor 15 to 30 times the intensity of natural cheese. Instead of waiting six to nine months to yield a desired flavor profile, the process takes two to four days.

Pri Megadim (Y.D., M.Z. 89, 4) cites two reasons for waiting six hours after eating aged cheese before eating meat. One is because the cheese is hard and may remain stuck between one’s teeth; the other is because the strong taste of aged cheese lingers in one’s mouth.

Although the texture of enzyme modified cheese is not hard (it is a liquid or powder) and we are not concerned about it remaining stuck in one’s teeth, its flavor may certainly linger. Pri Megadim writes that if a cheese has a strong flavor, even if it was not aged, one must still be machmir (stringent) and wait six hours (or whatever one’s custom is). Therefore, Rav Schachter concluded that in theory, if one were to eat plain enzyme modified cheese flavor, he should wait six hours before eating meat. However, enzyme modified cheese flavor is typically not sold as a stand-alone product, but rather it is incorporated into other foods (for example a cheese sauce). In the next Halacha Yomis, we will explain why it is not necessary to wait six hours in such instances.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.