a food made from milk, containing easily digestible proteins (15–27 percent) and fats (20–32 percent), as well as minerals (for example, calcium and phosphorus) and vitamins A and B. The caloric value of 100 grams of high-grade cheese is 1,470–1,680 kilojoules (350–400 kilocalories). Commercially, cheeses are divided into hard, soft, brine-cured, and processed varieties. Hard cheeses are dense and elastic in consistency. Soft cheeses are spreadable and unctuous. Unlike the other varieties, brine-cured cheeses ripen in a saline solution.
Cheese may be curdled by rennet or lactic acid. Cheese is easily digestible and almost completely assimilable (95–97 percent); consequently, it is a very valuable food. There are approximately 700 varieties of cheese in the world, distinguished by chemical content, flavor, and texture. The Soviet dairy industry produces primarily rennet cheeses: large hard (Sovietskii, Shveitsarskii), large with a relatively high level of lactic acid (Russkii, cheddar), small hard (Gollandskii, Kostromskoi, Uglichskii, Iaroslavskii), semihard (sharp), soft (Medyn’, Roquefort, Dorogobuzhskii, Smolenskii, Russian Camembert), and brine-cured (Brynza, Suluguni, Chanakh, Tushinskii).
The most common variety of cheese curdled by lactic acid is green cheese. Cream cheese is curdled by both rennet and lactic acid, with cream added during manufacture. There are more than 50 varieties of processed cheese, produced by melting natural cheeses at a temperature of 75°–80°C with such emulsifying salts as phosphates and sodium citrate and with flavorings.