'Prevent' cheese from going mouldy or 'becoming tasteless' by storing correctly

Cheese is a crucial ingredient in the kitchen for whipping up all our beloved comfort food dishes like pasta and toasties, but it can be maddening if it goes off prematurely. Plenty of people don't realise that cheese is quite a delicate food and, if kept with excessive moisture, it will develop mould.

Alternatively, if left exposed to too much air it can turn crusty and rigid. Nevertheless, Erika Kubick, a former cheesemonger and cookbook author, has revealed the biggest blunder when storing cheese: leaving it in the plastic wrapping from the supermarket.

Erika said: "Cheese is alive and breathing, which means it needs oxygen and humidity to stay fresh and tasty.

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"Now, I know it's convenient to just keep your cheese in the plastic wrap it came in, but it's just as easy to take care of it properly. Proper cheese storage is very simple and only takes a few minutes of actual effort", reports the Express.

Leaving cheese wrapped in plastic blocks all air circulation to smother it so it's more prone to losing flavour and can render it rock solid.

Plastic also generates a highly humid atmosphere and if excessive moisture gets trapped in the cheese it's more prone to becoming slimy and developing mould.

The optimal method to maintain cheese freshness is to remove the plastic wrapping as quickly as possible but ideally as soon as you arrive home from the shops.

Then, simply cover the cheese in baking paper or, if you prefer, you can purchase specialist cheese paper that's reusable to store your cheese in.

Ensure you don't leave any cheese uncovered as the fridge can rapidly dehydrate it and create that awful flavourless crusty coating.

If you spot a hard crust forming on your cheese, simply slice it away with a knife to maintain the cheese's freshness.

Erika explained: "Alternatively, wrap the cheese in parchment or butcher paper. Then, loosely wrap it in a Ziploc bag.

"Before closing the zipper, make sure there's still some air in the bag so your cheese has plenty of oxygen and humidity. Your cheese should stay tasty, fresh and have the perfect texture for much longer than it normally would last.

"The exact shelf life your cheese will have depends on the type as fresh cheeses like ricotta will always only last a few days while rind cheeses, aged cheeses and blue cheese will keep fresh for weeks."