What you can do with what you read here, what our food advice can and cannot know about your kitchen, and where the limits sit.
Last updated: September 2026
In This Article
The Short Version
You may read, link, and quote up to 50 words with a link back. You may not republish.
Our food advice is general, and the label on the packet beats anything written here.
- Quoting. Up to 50 words with a visible link back to the article, no permission needed.
- Republishing. Not permitted, including translated, reworded and machine-rewritten copies.
- Food advice. General reference written from published sources, not a substitute for a doctor, midwife, dietitian or food safety officer.
- Pregnancy and allergy. Read the section below before acting on anything here, because those two cases are where general advice fails hardest.
- Governing law. Victoria, Australia.
Food Information Disclaimer
The information on KnowTheCheese is for general reference and education. We are not food safety professionals, nutritionists, or medical practitioners.
Do not use this site in place of professional advice when your health is involved.
Cheese profiles, storage advice and nutritional figures on this site are built from published sources and our own testing. We run no laboratory analysis and we test no individual batch.
That matters because cheese varies by producer, by season and by wheel. Two cheeses sold under the same name can differ in salt, moisture, ageing and pasteurisation.
The product label wins every time. If a label contradicts something on this site, follow the label.
What Our Guidance Can and Cannot Settle
Every safety topic on this site has a boundary where general information stops being useful. The table names where each one ends.
| Topic | What this site gives you | What it cannot know | Who settles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pregnancy safety | Published guidance from health authorities, including Food Standards Australia New Zealand and the NHS, applied to cheese types | Whether the specific wheel in front of you was made with pasteurised milk, and how it was handled after cutting | The label, the cheesemonger, and your doctor or midwife |
| Dairy allergy and lactose intolerance | General patterns, such as which styles lose most lactose during ageing | Your threshold, your reaction history, and any cross-contamination at the counter | Your doctor or allergy specialist, plus the allergen statement on the pack |
| Mould and rind sensitivity | Which rinds are edible by design and which are wax, cloth or plastic | Whether you personally react to a specific mould culture | Your doctor, and your own tolerance |
| Storage and shelf life | General food science guidance on wrapping, temperature and how long a style holds | Your fridge temperature, how long the cheese sat in a warm car, and what the shop did before you bought it | Your own senses, and the use-by date on the pack |
| Nutrition figures | Typical values for a style, drawn from published data | The exact composition of one producer's recipe | The nutrition panel on the packet |
A use-by date is a safety instruction rather than a suggestion, and no storage guide overrides one.
If a cheese smells wrong, looks wrong, or shows growth the style does not normally carry, throw it out whatever any article here says.
We accept no responsibility for adverse reactions arising from following advice on this site.
General Terms of Use
By using knowthecheese.com you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, stop using the site.
- The site is for general informational and educational use. Start from the cheese profiles if you are looking for a specific cheese.
- You must be at least 13 years old to use the site.
- You may not attempt to break, overload, probe or gain unauthorised access to the site or its hosting.
- You may not use automated tools to bulk download the site, including crawlers that ignore robots directives or hammer the server.
- We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the site at any time without notice.
- We may update these terms. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision, and continued use means you accept the updated terms.
Nothing on this site is an offer to sell you anything. We run no shop, take no orders and process no payments.
What You May and May Not Reuse
The written content, photographs and design on this site are owned by KnowTheCheese or used under licence.
The table below is the whole policy, so you should not need to write and ask about anything marked yes.
| What you want to do | Allowed | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Link to any page on the site | Yes | No permission needed, and no need to ask. Deep links to individual articles are fine |
| Quote a passage in your own article, post or paper | Yes | Up to 50 words, in quotation marks, with a visible link to the article you took it from |
| Print or save a page for your own use | Yes | Personal and classroom use, not redistribution |
| Republish a full article anywhere | No | This includes syndication, PDF handouts, and posting the text into a forum or social platform |
| Republish a reworded or machine-rewritten version | No | Rewriting the sentences does not change who did the research |
| Translate an article into another language | No | Ask first. We have said yes to this before and we want to know where it lands |
| Reuse our photographs | No | The images are commissioned or licensed for this site only |
| Reproduce a full table or comparison chart | No | Ask first. A table is the research, not a passing quote |
| Scrape or bulk copy the site | No | Includes automated harvesting for datasets and for training generative models |
| Use content in a paid course, book or newsletter | Ask | Licensing is possible. Send the details through the contact page |
Requests to licence content go through the contact page. Tell us which articles, where they would appear, and for how long.
Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, KnowTheCheese and its contributors are not liable for any direct, indirect or incidental loss arising from your use of this site or any content on it. That includes loss arising from reliance on storage advice, food safety guidance, or nutritional information.
We make reasonable efforts to keep the site accurate and current, and we correct errors when they are found.
We do not guarantee that everything here is free of errors or omissions, and we do not guarantee the site will be available without interruption.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee or right you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded.
External Links
We link out to protected designation of origin documents, dairy board publications, food science research and government food safety pages. Those links exist so you can check the source rather than take our word for it.
- We do not control external sites and are not responsible for their content, accuracy or privacy practices.
- A link from this site is not an endorsement of the linked site or its operators.
- External pages move and disappear. A dead link here is worth reporting so it can be repointed or removed.
- This site carries no affiliate links. It does carry Google AdSense display advertising, which the Affiliate Disclosure covers in full.
Advertising on This Site
Display ads served by Google AdSense appear on the site, and Google selects them rather than us.
An ad is not a recommendation, and an advertised product has bought no place in the article text beside it.
What data those ads collect, and how to turn personalisation off, is set out in the privacy policy.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, we would rather fix it than defend it.
Send the article URL and the specific claim through the contact page, and include the source you are working from if you have one.
Corrections to a published article are made in the article itself, and a substantive change is dated.
Reading This Site Outside Australia
The safety guidance here leans on Food Standards Australia New Zealand and on NHS advice, because those two publish clear, current positions on cheese in pregnancy and on raw milk.
Food rules are national, and the same cheese can be legal in one country and unavailable in another.
Raw milk cheese is the sharpest example. Ageing requirements, labelling rules and what may be sold at all differ between Australia, the UK, the EU and the United States.
If you are outside Australia or the UK, treat our safety sections as the shape of the question and check your own national food authority for the answer.
Nothing here is legal advice about what you may import, sell or serve commercially.
Governing Law
These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia.
Any dispute arising from your use of this site is subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria.
Common Questions
Yes, up to 50 words, in quotation marks, with a visible link to the article you took it from. No permission needed and no need to write and ask.
No. The photography is commissioned or licensed for use on this site alone, and we cannot pass those rights on.
It reflects published guidance from health authorities applied to cheese types, and it cannot tell you how the specific wheel in front of you was made or handled. Check the label and ask your doctor or midwife.
The pack. A use-by date is a safety instruction tied to that specific product, and no general guide overrides one.
No. Bulk copying for datasets or model training is not permitted under these terms.
Need permission, or found an error?
Licensing requests and corrections both go to the same place. Include the article URL and what you need.