Industrial cheese
Cheese made at large scale in highly mechanised dairies from milk collected from many farms.
Also: factory cheese, fromage industriel
Industrial cheese is made in large, automated dairies from milk pooled from many farms, usually pasteurised and standardised to a set fat and protein level, then made with commercial cultures and often microbial rennet or chymosin. Cutting, cooking, moulding, pressing, brining and packing are done by machine, and many cheeses are ripened in plastic film rather than as natural rinds. The aim is consistency, safety and low cost, and most of the world's cheddar, mozzarella, Gouda, processed cheese and paneer is made this way. The French label laitier covers similar dairy-made cheese. Industrial is a description of scale, not of quality, but it tends to give milder, more uniform cheese.