If Cheese is made of milk why is it yellow?

Answer 1

Cheese is a product of milk, rennet, bacteria, and sometimes a fat soluble coloring agent (called a lake). The less water there is in cheese the more yellow it will get, up to a certain point. About the yellowest a cheese can naturally become is the color of the rind of Parmesan. If a darker or more intense of color is required, a lake (often Annatto) is added during the cheese making process. While it is true that bacterial molds can add color to the cheese, in such cases as the white rind of Bries and as veins as in the blues, none will uniformly color the cheese.

Answer 2

Yellow milk is commonly related to the diet that that cow is on. Grass is the most common diet that will turn milk (and fat) yellow, due to a compound in the grass that makes it green called Carotene. Carotene is a kind of plant-steriod that makes plants the vibrant colours they are, and this carries through the body of the grazer that eats these plants. Carotene mostly affects the colour of fat. Since milk is comprised of around 3.5% milk fat, a dairy cow that is grass-fed tends to produce yellow milk, over a dairy cow that is not grass-fed and fed primarily a mix of hay, silage and grain.

This is also reflected in grass-fed beef cattle. Such cattle, when slaughtered, have yellowish fat. This is because of the carotene affecting the colouration of the adipose tissue.

Answer 3

It's the carotene in the grass that is at play here. Carotene is responsible for making grass green, and looses its value and colour when cut and made into hay or silage. When grazed by a grazing animal like a dairy cow, it acts with the adipose tissue and cells turning them yellow.

Answer 4

It's caused by carotene which is present in grass. Like in grass-fed cattle, carotene from the grass makes fat more of a yellowish colour than if cattle were on more of a grain-forage mix ration. Milk contains a lot of fat, hence the yellowish colour.

Answer 5

Cow's milk is slightly yellow due to the presence of Carotene.

Answer 6

It would be the colour of the fat that comes from the milk that makes butter a light yellow colour.