Cheese crystals

Cheese crystals are whitish, semi-solid to solid, slightly crunchy to gritty crystalline spots, granules, and aggregates that can form on the surface and inside of cheese.

However, in some cheeses, like industrial cheddar, they are considered a production defect.

Most commonly found are calcium lactate crystals, especially on younger cheese, on the surface, and on cheddar.

Depending on the cheese and its age, these crystals can consist of either or both enantiomers.

[1] For grana padano, grainy amino acid crystals inside the cheese consisting mainly of tyrosine and of leucine and isoleucine have been reported.