Types of cheese: which are healthier and how to choose

How are the different types of cheese classified?

All cheese starts out the same way. Milk is curdled, the whey is separated, and the curds remain. What happens next determines the type, especially how long it is aged. Spanish regulations distinguish fresh cheese, which is ready as soon as it is made, from matured cheese [3].

• Fresh. Unaged. Burgos-style cheese, mozzarella, cottage cheese or whipped fresh cheese.
• Soft. Creamy texture and short maturation, sometimes with a white mould rind.
• Mild and semi-cured. A large wheel of semi-cured cheese is aged for at least 35 days [3].
• Cured, aged and extra-aged. A large wheel of cured cheese is aged for at least 105 days; extra-aged cheese, 270 [3].
• Spreadable and processed. Made by melting and emulsifying one or more cheeses [3].
• Requeson and ricotta. Made by heating the leftover whey from producing other cheeses.

The milk matters too. Sheep’s milk tends to produce fattier, more flavourful cheeses than cow’s milk, while goat’s milk falls somewhere in between. But water content has the greatest effect on the figures. The longer a cheese is matured, the more water it loses, concentrating its fat, protein and salt.

What changes in fat, salt, protein, calcium and lactose?

The figures tell you more than any “light” label. They come from the official composition tables of Italy’s Food and Nutrition Research Centre (CREA), which include cheeses comparable to ours [1]. Salt is calculated from sodium.

Per 100 g

Type (example)	Energy	Protein	Fat	Salt	Calcium
Requeson or ricotta	146 kcal	8.8 g	10.9 g	0.2 g	295 mg
Fresh, cottage-style	115 kcal	9.7 g	7.1 g	0.7 g	—
Cow’s-milk mozzarella	253 kcal	18.7 g	19.5 g	0.5 g	350 mg
Soft (crescenza-style)	281 kcal	16.1 g	23.3 g	0.9 g	557 mg
Spreadable	313 kcal	8.6 g	31.0 g	0.8 g	110 mg
Semi-cured (fontina-style)	361 kcal	24.5 g	28.9 g	1.7 g	870 mg
Cured cow’s-milk cheese (Parmesan)	397 kcal	32.4 g	29.7 g	1.5 g	1,159 mg
Cured sheep’s-milk cheese	404 kcal	28.8 g	32.0 g	4.5 g	607 mg
Processed cheese portions	309 kcal	11.2 g	26.9 g	2.5 g	430 mg

A table per 100 g can be misleading, because nobody eats the same amount of fresh and cured cheese. The indicative serving is 80 to 125 g for fresh cheese and 40 to 60 g for cured or semi-cured cheese [2]. In the following table we use 100 g and 50 g. For soft and spreadable cheese, we use 50 g and 30 g, the amounts usually put on a plate or a slice of toast.

Per serving

Type (example)	Serving	Protein	Salt	Calcium
Requeson or ricotta	100 g	8.8 g	0.2 g	295 mg
Cow’s-milk mozzarella	100 g	18.7 g	0.5 g	350 mg
Soft (crescenza-style)	50 g	8.1 g	0.4 g	280 mg
Spreadable	30 g	2.6 g	0.2 g	33 mg
Semi-cured (fontina-style)	50 g	12.3 g	0.9 g	435 mg
Cured cow’s-milk cheese (Parmesan)	50 g	16.2 g	0.8 g	580 mg
Cured sheep’s-milk cheese	50 g	14.4 g	2.3 g	304 mg

Per serving, the differences are smaller. Cured cheese provides a lot of calcium in a small amount, while fresh cheese provides the same protein with less salt. Spreadable cheese provides the least protein and calcium per serving, although it contains quite a lot of fat. Every brand is different, so the label takes precedence over any table.

Which cheeses should you choose for everyday eating?

For everyday eating, choose fresh cheeses: requeson, ricotta, cottage cheese, Burgos-style cheese or mozzarella. They contain less fat and salt per serving and go with almost anything, from breakfast to a dinner salad. Cured and semi-cured cheeses can be part of your weekly menu if you stick to the serving size and have them with wholemeal bread, fruit or vegetables.

Cheese is one more dairy food. Spanish recommendations suggest up to three servings of dairy a day, preferably plain, with no added sugar and little salt [2]. A yoghurt and a glass of milk already make two. If cheese is the third, that is fine.

Look for a short ingredients list. Traditional cheese contains milk, rennet, salt and sometimes cultures. If you see starches, potato starch or vegetable oils, it is a different product.

If you have high blood pressure

The key factor here is salt. The WHO advises adults to consume less than 5 g of salt a day [4]. A 50 g serving of cured sheep’s-milk cheese contains about 2.3 g [1], almost half that amount. A serving of requeson contains less than 0.2 g [1].

You do not need to give up cheese if you have high blood pressure. It is sensible to make fresh cheese your usual choice and grate cured cheese over a dish instead of eating it in cubes. Our weekly low-salt menu for hypertension explains how to organise your week with less salt.

Do cured cheeses contain lactose?

Very little. During maturation, cheese bacteria consume lactose, and in long-matured cheeses it falls below 0.01 g per 100 g [5]. Fresh cheeses retain more, between 0.4 and 3.5 g per 100 g, with ricotta at the upper end of that range [5].

That is why many people with lactose intolerance tolerate cured cheese but not requeson. Our lactose intolerance guide explains how much lactose each person can tolerate and how to try it.

Which cheeses can you eat during pregnancy?

The risk is Listeria, a bacterium that can pass to the baby. The Spanish food safety agency advises against eating raw-milk cheese during pregnancy and recommends checking that the label says “pasteurised milk” [6]. Soft mould-ripened and blue cheeses are also not recommended unless cooked [6]. See “Cheese in pregnancy”.

Pasteurised fresh cheeses, requeson and cheeses made with pasteurised milk that have been stored properly and are within their use-by date can generally be eaten. Your midwife or doctor can tell you what is suitable in your case.

What are processed cheeses and “cheese-flavoured” products?

Processed cheeses are made by grinding, melting and emulsifying other cheeses [3]. Cheese portions and many sliced cheeses are processed, and they often contain more salt than the cheese they are made from. Processed cheese portions contain about 2.5 g of salt per 100 g [1].

In the European Union, a product that replaces milk fat with vegetable fat cannot be called cheese [7]. That is why the packaging may say “preparation”, “speciality” or “cheese-flavoured”. You can identify it from the ingredients list, which will include vegetable oils or fats and starches.

Plant-based cheese alternatives are something else. If you use them, choose those with nuts or pulses as the main ingredient and no coconut fat. Bear in mind that they may contain allergens such as tree nuts or soy.

What we see in consultations about cheese

It is one of the foods that raises the most questions in consultations, and almost always for the same reasons.

“I eat light cheese, so I can have as much as I want.” Cheese with less fat still contains salt, and sometimes more. The serving size still matters.

“I gave up cheese to eat healthily.” You lose a convenient source of protein and calcium. In most cases, it is enough to change the type and adjust the serving.

“Spreadable cheese is like fresh cheese.” It may look that way because of its texture, but per 100 g it contains three times as much fat as requeson and much less calcium [1].