Cottage cheese is divided into several categories, for each of which there are certain characteristics. It is difficult to call a specific product the most delicious because of the different taste preferences of customers. Some people prefer crumbly and sour cottage cheese, others prefer a product with small grains combined into a homogeneous thick mass.

Traditional classification of cottage cheese:

• classic, fatty, low-fat and fat-free (according to the degree of fat content);
• granular and homogeneous (by consistency);
• separate and traditional (according to the method of manufacture).

For buyers, the classification of cottage cheese by fat content and consistency plays an important role, but the method of manufacturing the product should also be taken into account so that the expectations from its purchase are justified. The traditional method of making cottage cheese is based on the fermentation of milk, and with the separate method, the main ingredient is first separated into cream and skim milk, and only after that the fermentation process begins. In the first case, crumbly cottage cheese is obtained, in the second, the product acquires an oily and almost homogeneous consistency. In terms of taste, both varieties have their own differences.

Which cottage cheese is suitable for what:

• for baby food, the fat content of cottage cheese should not exceed 2%;
• during pregnancy and lactation, it is not recommended to buy cottage cheese above 9% fat;
• 18% and 22% are the most common types of cottage cheese that most fans of this product use;
• cottage cheese with a fat content of more than 23% is most often purchased for cooking various dishes.

How to identify a good cottage cheese

When choosing cottage cheese, you first need to pay attention to its variety in terms of fat content, consistency and method of manufacture. This information will help to form an impression about the product in advance and predict its taste. After studying such data, the curd should be evaluated visually.

Signs of good cottage cheese:

• granular texture, milky white shade and tenderness of the mass indicate that the product is made from natural milk, it will have a creamy taste;
• when rubbed between the fingers, high-quality cottage cheese will change its structure and leave an oily mark on the skin;
• it is better to buy cottage cheese in transparent packages so that it is possible to evaluate it visually;
• cottage cheese packaging should not be damaged;
• you need to buy the freshest cottage cheese by date of manufacture;
• the consistency of the curd should be slightly crumbly, if the product is too homogeneous, then palm oil was used for its manufacture;
• real cottage cheese always smells like milk or yeast;
• the taste of quality cottage cheese cannot be called either sour or sweet, and the sour taste should be negligible.

The taste of cottage cheese directly depends on its fat content: the lower the percentage of fat, the less pronounced the taste will be. This nuance must be considered before buying a product. If cottage cheese is bought by weight, then its visual assessment should be carried out especially carefully. The product must be rubbed through the fingers, smelled and, if possible, immediately tasted.

Signs of low-quality cottage cheese:

• a pronounced granular texture is not always a sign of the quality of the cottage cheese, if the grains are too hard and give the impression of dry particles, then the product is overcooked and will be bitter;
• the bitter taste of cottage cheese indicates a violation of the process of its manufacture or storage;
• when rubbed with fingers, low-quality cottage cheese will retain its structure, and the oily substance will not stand out from it;
• damage to the packaging should be the reason for refusing to purchase the product;
• a swollen lid or packaging is a sign of spoiled cottage cheese;
• in no case should you buy cottage cheese that has expired or in the last days before the specified date;
• cottage cheese that has been frozen completely loses its taste;
• - white, blue or greenish particles may be present in the curd mass, which indicates the beginning of mold development;
• the yellow color of the mass can only be in spoiled cottage cheese;
• good cottage cheese cannot be liquid;
• if the cottage cheese does not smell like milk, then you should refrain from buying it;
• if the color of the cottage cheese is not uniform, then this is a sign of mixing products of different quality (or fresh cottage cheese with spoiled one);
• if the package contains too many additional ingredients with unfamiliar names, then you should not buy such a product (real cottage cheese should contain only natural ingredients);
• too low price of cottage cheese is the first sign of replacing product components with soy, vegetable fats and other cheap ingredients.

Often manufacturers add starch to cottage cheese. This is done with one goal - to increase the mass of the final product. It is quite difficult to determine the presence of an additional component visually, and at home this is done with the help of iodine. A bluish drop of a substance on the surface of the curd is a sign of the presence of starch.

Last year, we presented the results of the examination of the most useful dairy product - cottage cheese. Useful because it is in cottage cheese, and not in milk or kefir, that all the most valuable vitamins and minerals necessary for the human body are concentrated to the maximum.

Then the results were, alas, disappointing. Exactly half of the samples examined in the laboratory turned out to be fake. Instead of natural cow's milk, this cottage cheese was made from a mixture of cheap vegetable fats - palm and coconut oils.

We recently did a new study. This time, five samples of cottage cheese purchased at various retail outlets of the city went to the Rostest-Moscow food testing center. And again - a discovery: out of five, three samples do not meet the requirements of regulatory documentation, or, more simply, they cannot be called cottage cheese.

The manufacturer can write the word "cottage cheese" on the package only if the product contains 100% milk fat. If a vegetable-based milk fat substitute was used in the production and no more than 50%, then this is a curd product. If there are more than half of vegetable oils, then such a food invention has no right to be called either dairy or curd.

Two of our samples were manufactured according to GOST, two more - according to TU, and one - according to the corporate standard (STO). Curiously, it was in GOST products that experts discovered the substitution of fats.

On a pack of cottage cheese from the Ostankino Dairy Plant, t. m. "Dobryana", it is indicated that this cottage cheese has a milk fat content of 18%. Fat really turned out to be 18%, but what! Only 64.4% of it was of dairy origin, the rest being tropical oils. By law, such a dish should be called curd product, but not natural curd, for which the manufacturer gives it out.

In addition, in this sample, the content of yeast (1000 at a rate of not more than 100 CFU/g) and mold (10,000 at a rate of not more than 50 CFU/g) turned out to be overestimated. Having eaten such a “curd”, an upset stomach is guaranteed to you.

The supposedly cottage cheese of the Dmitrovsky Dairy Plant is doing even worse. It does not smell like natural milk. “Less than 1% of milk fat in the composition indicates that almost the entire fat part of the cottage cheese has been replaced with a vegetable equivalent,” comments Roman Gaidashov, an expert at QUALITY.RU magazine. At the same time, this sample violated the requirements for product labeling. On the pack, the mass fraction of fat is 18%, in fact it is 37%, and 14% of the protein actually turned out to be only 3.97% - another proof that cow's milk has nothing to do with such "cottage cheese".

It, without going beyond the expiration date, turned out to be spoiled: 10,000 CFU / g of yeast, 200 CFU / g of mold (no more than 100 and no more than 50, respectively, are allowed).

The three remaining samples passed the test - they are really based on cow's milk, without admixture of vegetable fats. At the same time, Blagoda cottage cheese turned out to be fatter than stated on the package: instead of 12% fat, it was found to contain as much as 17.5%. This, of course, is not dangerous, but the manufacturer violated the requirements for product labeling.

There were no complaints about the quality of only two samples - fat-free cottage cheese from the Ostankino dairy plant and "House in the Village" from Wimm-Bill-Dann. Moreover, the latter can be stored not for 7-10 days (at a temperature of +4 ... 2 ° C), like the rest of the samples, but for a month.

On a pack of Blagoda cottage cheese, it is completely indicated that it can be stored for 6 months if frozen to -18 ° C.

Roman Gaidashovexplains that the law allows the storage of cottage cheese in the freezer: this is convenient in the warehouses of large stores - it lies there for months. But it should be remembered that when frozen, the benefits of cottage cheese as a lactic acid product disappear - living microorganisms die. It is better to put such cottage cheese in a casserole, and for breakfast buy one that has a minimum shelf life.

Expertise results

Cottage cheese "Ostankinsky" TM Dobryana mass fraction of fat 18%.

OJSC "Ostankino Dairy Plant" (Moscow)

Ingredients: normalized milk, sourdough, rennet

Made according to GOST

Contains 64.4% milk fat, 35.6% tropical oil replacement

Cottage cheese "Derevensky Selected" "House in the village" mass fraction of fat 9%

OJSC "Wimm-Bill-Dann" (Krasnodar Territory, Timashevsk)

Ingredients: skimmed milk, cream, with sourdough

Made according to TU

Contains only milk fat

Microflora is normal

Cottage cheese "Peasant" TM Blagoda mass fraction of fat 12%

Product of the company "Dairy Business" (C) LLC "Dairy Business-Alatyr", Russian Federation, Chuvash Republic, Alatyr

Ingredients: whole milk, skimmed milk, with the use of sourdough, milk-clotting enzyme

Made by STO

Contains only milk fat, but the proportion of fat is too high (17.5% instead of the declared 12%)

Microflora is normal

Cottage cheese “Sign of trust. with you since 1929!” mass fraction of fat 18%

CJSC "Dmitrovsky Dairy Plant" (MO, Dmitrov)

Ingredients: normalized milk, sourdough, milk-clotting enzyme, calcium chloride.

Made according to GOST

Contains less than 1% milk fat. Complete replacement with vegetable fat

Cottage cheese "Ostankinsky fat-free"

OOO Ostankino Dairy Plant, Moscow

Made according to TU

Ingredients: normalized milk, sourdough

Contains only milk fat

Microflora is normal

Cottage cheese is a fermented milk product loved by many, which was also produced by
ancient Romans. It is unlikely that in those distant times people thought about the benefits of cottage cheese, most likely
this product attracted them with its impeccable taste, allowed them to diversify the table and gave
the energy needed for physical labor. Variety offered by modern
shops both pleases and plunges into confusion.

There is a choice, but how to choose what will benefit? At present, there are many
manufacturers and brands that claim that their cottage cheese is the most natural,
but this is not always true. Many manufacturers are not enough
conscientious and resort to various non-standard tricks in order to sell more, offer
lower price than competitors and at the same time avoid possible losses and partially save on
cottage cheese production.

Let's try to figure out what natural cottage cheese should be? After all, this valuable
tasty product is one of the first to appear in the human diet after breast milk or its
substitutes! Real cottage cheese should be made only from natural milk without adding
dry. A sign of the addition of powdered milk is that the curd is moist and does not crumble, because
This is what keeps the moisture in the product.

The consistency of natural curd should be soft, spreadable or crumbly, depending
from the technology of preparation. It is bad if the cottage cheese is stratified. This means that the manufacturer has mixed
the remains of the old cottage cheese with the new. But the humidity or dryness of cottage cheese is a variable indicator. All
depends on how the whey is squeezed out. If the cottage cheese is crumbly, granular, with lumps - this means
that all the moisture was drawn out of it. It keeps longer than the fatter, oilier ones and is lighter in weight.

The color of the curd should be white. A bluish or yellowish tint is a sign of old or
damaged product. The smell is characteristic milky, the taste is sour. Powdered milk curd has
not very pronounced smell and especially taste. Proper cottage cheese should not be bitter. If a treat
sweet taste, it means that sugar was added to it to kill the sour taste.

Modern manufacturers look for loopholes in state standards and requirements for
fermented milk products, denoting a product that differs from real cottage cheese in composition,
various, similar in sound, names - cottage cheese, cottage cheese dessert, etc. After all, according to
state dairy regulations, only a product made from
natural milk, no artificial additives.

If you see the inscription "curd product" or "curd" on the package, then it contains
hides not at all a noble sour-milk delicacy. Curd production technology
the product is about the same as natural cottage cheese, but milk is not used the highest
level. As a rule, some of the expensive proteins and fats have been removed from it. To preserve nutritional
values ​​instead of milk fats replace cheap soy or palm oils, is added
powdered milk. So which cottage cheese to choose?

What should you pay attention to when buying cottage cheese?First of all, you should look at
date of manufacture and expiration date. These are the most basic requirements for the quality of cottage cheese. Cottage cheese,
which can be stored for more than seven days, is likely to contain additives or preservatives,
to extend its shelf life. It is also necessary, if possible, to study the consistency
and the color of the curd. If the product is too dry, too runny or has yellowish spots in places
and a dried crust, this either indicates the staleness of the cottage cheese, or the presence of preservatives in its composition.
And of course, study the composition of the product. Cottage cheese corresponding to GOST must be made on
based on natural, reconstituted, recombined or normalized milk.
It is allowed to make cottage cheese based on mixtures of the above dairy products. Our
Sferm online store offers you to buy cottage cheese produced in the classic Russian way
from natural ingredients, so it has a minimum shelf life of 7 days!

Natural cottage cheese is one of the most demanded and necessary food products., its usefulness
consists in a very high content of calcium, which is extremely important for a person, especially in children's
age for bone formation, teeth, nails and hair growth. The value of this product has already been
by the very recipe for its preparation, since all the most
substances that are important and necessary for health. The benefits of cottage cheese are that it is well balanced and
easily digestible product.

Regular use of cottage cheese can increase the tone of the body, fill it with vitality.
important minerals and vitamins. But all the useful properties are inherent only in natural
fermented milk product. It is he who offers you to buy an online store of farm products
SPHERM! We cooperate with trusted suppliers - small farms,
located in ecologically clean regions of Russia, far from big cities and noisy highways.
And we control production at every stage, so we give a guarantee of the quality of our farm
products! Production and packaging of goods is carried out in accordance with GOST technologies, which
confirmed by all necessary certificates.

To ensure the highest quality and naturalness our farm products
we suggest you buy basket of hits which consists of dairy and meat products.
The price of such a basket is only 990 rubles, which allows you to save 15% of the cost of products,
if you buy them separately. Within 2-3 hours after placing an order, couriers will deliver your
purchase to the agreed place, specially equipped refrigerators to save all
freshness of purchased natural products. But if any product did not meet your expectations,
we are ready to reimburse its cost on demand or offer a worthy alternative.

No one today doubts that cottage cheese is one of the most useful foods in the diet of any person. Cottage cheese is included in almost all possible diets, as it contains a lot of calcium and animal protein, which are necessary for the growth and strengthening of bones and muscles.

It is very important that the cottage cheese is natural, that is, made from fresh milk and cream using starter cultures. A small amount of ordinary food (table) salt is also acceptable.

But what exactly should not be in cottage cheese is preservatives, stabilizers and flavorings. Especially harmful is the preservative - potassium sorbate (E202), which can cause dysbacteriosis and allergic reactions. In addition, preservatives have a negative effect on both bacteria that are dangerous to the body and beneficial bacteria that the body needs. There are also studies proving the carcinogenicity of many artificial additives and preservatives.

How to choose the “correct”, natural cottage cheese on the shelf? You need to read the label carefully. After changes in the rules for labeling dairy products, most manufacturers that add preservatives, flavors, etc. to their products were forced to rename their products. They are no longer referred to as corn curds, but are referred to as "curd product", "curd grain", etc. Now you can immediately cut off obviously not natural products. But it’s better to read the composition of the product anyway, in order to be sure of its quality and once choose the right brand for yourself, for example, 101 grain cottage cheese from Savushkin.

The latest equipment and modern production technologies of the Savushkin company meet all the requirements of the technical regulations of the Eurasian Union. This company sets a high standard for all Belarusian producers, being the leader of the country's dairy industry. Thanks to the use of the best raw materials and the strictest quality control, all "milk" under the brand name "Savushkin" is produced without the addition of preservatives and artificial additives. Belarusian products are generally of high quality, as this country has very strict food requirements. In addition, exporters are subject to increased requirements, they undergo additional checks. And Savushkin is the leading exporter of dairy products in Belarus.

The quality of Savushkin cottage cheese has been repeatedly confirmed by Russian tests, which are periodically carried out by both journalists and retail chains themselves. It is understandable - the company has never added any preservatives or artificial flavors to its products. You can verify this by taking, for example, the same grained cottage cheese "101 grains" and carefully reading the label. You will find in the composition only fresh milk, starter cultures, rennet, calcium chloride, cream and salt - everything, as it should be for high-quality natural cottage cheese, which, alas, is not so much on the shelves of our stores.

The crisis hit the pocket of the consumer, who began to save on everything and look for cheaper products, and many manufacturers began to produce "budget" versions of the same cottage cheese or cottage cheese, for example, from milk powder with the addition of cheap palm oil. But Savushkin remained true to its principles of producing only natural dairy products always from fresh milk.

The use of powdered milk is allowed by modern standards of the dairy industry, but this must be indicated on the packaging. And, of course, it is impossible to compare the taste and consumer qualities of cottage cheese from dried and fresh milk. And replacing milk fats with vegetable fats makes the product much less valuable in terms of nutrition. So once again, read the packaging carefully! And in order not to do this every time in the store, in your free time, study the presented assortment and choose one brand whose products meet quality standards, do not contain unwanted additives and are made from fresh milk. Then you can always be sure that you are eating tasty and healthy cottage cheese, which is beneficial to your health.

In contact with

After examining the cottage cheese of 44 brands presented on Russian shelves, Roskachestvo specialists came to the conclusion that more than half of the studied products fully comply with quality standards. The main violation in other cases is the replacement of milk fat with vegetable fat. This is done in order to save money and is most often found in high-fat cottage cheese. How to choose high-quality cottage cheese?

What are we looking at

1 Package
Paper is unreliable, it is leaky and does not protect against the penetration of harmful bacteria. But there can be problems with the vacuum. Inspect the item carefully. If the packaging is damaged or swollen, it is better not to buy such cottage cheese.

2 Color
Only milky white or pale cream. If the cottage cheese is yellow, it is expired. Do you see yellowish or blue blotches in the white mass? So, sour cottage cheese was mixed with fresh.

3 Shelf life
Ideally - no more than two or three days. If the expiration date indicated on the package exceeds this period, then the product contains a lot of preservatives.

4 Consistency

The curd should be crumbly and slightly moist. A sticky and homogeneous mass indicates the presence of palm oil. When buying at the market, rub a piece between your fingers. If they become oily, the cottage cheese is good.

5 Additives
To increase the mass, starch is sometimes added to the cottage cheese. You can check this at home by dropping a little iodine. With an excess of starch, the drop will turn blue.

Favorite dish of Indian gods

According to legend, the favorite dish of the god Krishna was cottage cheese. He called this product a gift of nature and a healing elixir. In India, there is still a belief that if you break a pot of cottage cheese, good luck will accompany you for a whole year. On holidays, pillars were set up in the squares with pots of cottage cheese fixed at the top. And they offered everyone who wanted to break the pot with a stone - for good luck.

Dry or whole?

The myth that powdered milk is less healthy than whole milk is very tenacious. And buyers often look for products made from whole milk on the shelves. In fact, milk powder, in particular, in the manufacture of cottage cheese, is an absolutely normal component that is allowed by all standards. It is used to increase the protein content of a dairy product. The quality of cottage cheese does not deteriorate due to the presence of powdered milk in it.

18% According to statistics, this fat content is the most popular among Russian buyers. Whereas experts consider cottage cheese with a fat content of 9% to be the most beneficial for health.

Caution: Antibiotics

Elena SARATSEVA, Deputy Head of Roskachestvo

« Fans of cottage cheese should know when to stop. in 40% of the brands we studied, a residual content of antibiotics was found. They get into the curd from the milk of cows treated with these drugs. Antibiotics can only be found in the laboratory. What is the danger? Drugs enter our body, addiction occurs, and we become immune to the action of drugs.

TOP-5 from Roskachestvo

The best Russian-made cottage cheese (9%): Agrocomplex, Amka, Cheburashkin Brothers, Tommoloko, Ugleche Pole.

Photo: Roskachestvo; DeVisu/Fotolia.com; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru/pixabay.com

Everyone knows that cottage cheese is good for bones and joints since childhood. But the useful properties of the product are not limited to this. What exactly is the use of cottage cheese and why it is better to choose fat rather than low-fat cottage cheese for a diet, says our expert - MD, nutritionist, reflexologist, dermatovenereologist, cosmetologist, phytotherapeutist Mariyat Mukhina.

Mariyat Mukhina

Doctor of Medical Sciences, nutritionist, reflexologist, dermatovenereologist, cosmetologist, phytotherapist

Since Louis Pasteur became interested in lactic acid fermentation, 150 years have passed. Now we already know that lactic acid bacteria increase the body's resistance to various diseases. Lactic acid streptococcus, bulgarian stick, acidophilus bacillus, kefir mushrooms, casei lactobacilli and bifidobacteria ...

People who carefully monitor their health know these names by heart, trying to buy only natural fermented milk products containing these beneficial microorganisms. Helper bacteria allow you to create fermented baked milk, yogurt, acidophilus milk, sour cream, yogurt, kefir and, of course, cottage cheese.

Some of the bacteria worth getting to know better:

lactobacilli produce lactase, an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates in milk. This produces lactic acid - it suppresses the vital activity of pathogenic bacteria, and we get sick less often.

• acidophilus bacillus produces natural antibiotics in the intestines, thanks to which pathogenic microflora dies and the whole body works better. Acidophilus bacillus is so resistant that it is recommended even for chemotherapy.
• Bulgarian stick, discovered by I. I. Mechnikov is truly unique. It not only produces lactic acid, which suppresses pathogenic bacteria, but also normalizes the functioning of the stomach, intestines, pancreas, and improves immunity. In addition, it helps the body produce vitamins.
• Lactobacillus casei are so strong that they are able to displace the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of gastritis and ulcers.

But in order to get all these beneficial bacteria with fermented milk products, you need to be very careful when choosing products.

In real cottage cheese, the number of beneficial microorganisms should be more than a million in one gram. If there are fewer of them, it means that either the production technology is violated, or there are preservatives in the curd, or antibiotics that got into the curd from cow's milk.

"cottage cheese", "curd product", "curd mass"

If the package says “cottage cheese”, “curd product”, “curd mass”, then this is not cottage cheese: these products contain vegetable fats

How useful is cottage cheese?

Increases immunity. There are many beneficial bacteria in cottage cheese that inhibit the development of pathogenic microflora. This product can serve as a prophylactic against thrush and other fungal diseases. When taking antibiotics, it stabilizes digestion.

Relieves stress. Cottage cheese is able to relieve anxiety and eliminate the effects of stress by synthesizing serotonin (“hormone of joy”) from the amino acid tryptophan. Thanks to the content of choline, it improves the condition of the nervous system and the functioning of the brain.

Strengthens the heart and blood vessels. Reduces the level of "bad" cholesterol, reduces the risk of hypertension.

Improves the condition of bones and teeth. Due to the large amount of calcium, it strengthens bone tissue, protects bones from fractures, prevents the development of caries, arthritis and osteoporosis.

Ideal product for a diet. Easily digestible even with lactose intolerance, it contains a lot of protein, beneficial microorganisms, and little fat. Thanks to the amino acid methionine, cottage cheese is an excellent fat burner.

For a diet only low fat?

So how do you choose cottage cheese for the right diet? First, it is important to understand how it is divided according to the degree of fat content:

1. Fat-free cottage cheese is usually called a product with a fat content of up to 1.8%.
2. Low-fat cottage cheese, or low-fat - from 2 to 3.8%.
3. Classic, or medium-fat cottage cheese - 4-9% fat.
4. Fat cottage cheese contains from 12 to 23% fat.

Most people who want to lose weight eat only fat-free cottage cheese. On the one hand, this is useful, but there are several pitfalls here.

In fat-free and low-fat cottage cheese, protein is 18%, in classic - 16%, and in fatty - only 14% of protein. And it is better to make a decision on choosing a product based on the required amount of protein and fat at the moment. This is especially important for athletes and people who reduce weight - we choose low-fat varieties of cottage cheese.

However, to replenish energy, you will have to eat more low-fat cottage cheese, since useful substances are absorbed worse when the fat content is reduced. For example, calcium from fat-free cottage cheese will be absorbed 30-40% less than from the classic one. Fat-soluble vitamin D contributes to the absorption of calcium, and it is sufficient only in cottage cheese with medium and high fat content. Vitamins A and E are also absent in low-fat cottage cheese.

When using low-fat cottage cheese, animal fat will need to be obtained from other products. It is involved in the production of hormones, the formation of brain cells and the nervous system, and also helps thermoregulation.

By completely depriving your body of animal fats, after a month you can notice how your hair and nails have become brittle, and your skin is dry. This is the first sign that it's time to stop eating low-fat foods.

If you are still leaning towards low-fat cottage cheese, remember that starch is often added to it for stabilization and volume, and flavorings and sweeteners to improve taste. Real fat-free cottage cheese is dry and tasteless.

Curd with honey

Favorite recipe from childhood - cottage cheese with honey or jam. Unfortunately, this is not the best option for the figure. It will be much healthier, but no less tasty, to add berries to it or grate a green apple. If it is still important to eat low-fat cottage cheese, add stevia syrup or stevia jam to it, and you will get a real diet dessert.

When is cottage cheese not allowed?

Curd is an acidic product. It is with this property that most of the contraindications are associated.

First of all, cottage cheese is harmful for stomach ulcers and gastritis. In the case of diarrhea, on the contrary, it is prescribed, but you should not get carried away.

The rate of consumption of cottage cheese for women is up to 200 grams per day, for men - up to 250 grams. If you eat more cottage cheese, the risk of constipation increases.

If you eat cottage cheese before bed, be sure to brush your teeth afterwards: lactic acid and some bacteria can cause cavities.

Remember:

Curd spoils quickly. Always look at the date of manufacture and expiration date. In the refrigerator, cottage cheese is stored for 3-6 days in its original packaging or under a lid. In the freezer - 2-3 weeks.

In ancient times, wise people advised to eat cottage cheese before a long journey. Then the path will be kind, and health will be strong. This tradition is still relevant today. Eat cottage cheese and be healthy!

One of the best sources of protein and calcium for the human body is cottage cheese. Children and adults love it, it helps to lose weight, strengthen bones and hair, normalize bowel function, and is simply an indispensable ingredient in a mass of delicious dishes. But the question of which cottage cheese is the best still has no answer. More precisely, it has. But not everyone will be satisfied with this answer. How do you like the maxim that the best cottage cheese is the one that is obtained from the milk of your cow or goat? How many of us can boast of having our own dairy farm? So you have to think about dairy products in a store or in the market, choosing the best cottage cheese.

What is good curd

Good cottage cheese has a number of qualities, of which the main ones are ... everything. If at least one of the criteria is not met, the cottage cheese cannot be called high-quality. See for yourself:

• The right cottage cheese is obtained only from natural, real milk.
• Good cottage cheese has a warm, white-cream color that does not give off greens or blues.
• The taste of high-quality cottage cheese is not sour and not bitter.
• The smell of high-quality cottage cheese is pleasant, also without sourness.
• Good cottage cheese is homogeneous, does not delaminate, has a soft buttery texture, not liquid, but not too dry.

If cottage cheese is bought on the market, it is rather difficult to determine its quality, although you will even be offered to try it before buying. The biggest danger that awaits lovers of "homemade cottage cheese" is bacteria. After all, it is impossible to guarantee the cleanliness of the hands by which the cottage cheese was made, as well as the hands of the seller, and all the dishes used in the manufacturing process. Well, if you are lucky, and you will find delicious cottage cheese and a seller whose cleanliness you will not doubt. But trial and error in finding safe curd comes with too many risks. No one wants to spend several weeks in a hospital bed after an unsuccessful purchase. It is also important that the cottage cheese on the market is much more expensive than the store.

If cottage cheese is sold in a store, you should pay close attention to its packaging. It is better if the cottage cheese is packed in a plastic vacuum container, and not just wrapped in a soaked paper wrapper. The packaging should clearly indicate that it contains cottage cheese, and not a curd product. It is also necessary to indicate the percentage of fat content of cottage cheese. Usually it is in the range from 0 to 23%. By the way, fans of a healthy diet should remember that calcium cannot be absorbed by the body without fat. So low-fat cottage cheese to fight osteoporosis is useless. Therefore, if you care about your future, eat at least 9% fat cottage cheese. Well, or 5% cottage cheese, but with sour cream. Of course, the packaging of cottage cheese must contain information about the manufacturer, all the necessary dates, storage conditions for the product, as well as detailed information about its nutritional value. And remember: natural cottage cheese has a shelf life of no more than a week. Everything else is chemistry.

Exam at home

Purchased cottage cheese can be checked at home. True, only two questions can be clarified: is starch added to the cottage cheese (this is often done to increase the mass of the product), and whether vegetable oils were used in the manufacture of cottage cheese.

A drop of iodine will be enough to reveal hidden starch. Dropping iodine on a piece of cottage cheese, you need to see if its color has changed from yellow to blue. If it has changed - congratulations, you have purchased starched cottage cheese, do not do this again. If iodine remains the same color, there is no starch in your cottage cheese.

You can check whether cheap vegetable oils were used during the manufacture of cottage cheese, as follows. Leave a piece of cottage cheese for a day at room temperature. Let it just lie on a saucer, you don’t need to close it with anything. After a day, look what happened to the cottage cheese. If a piece of cottage cheese turned yellow, dried out and covered with a crust, then the cottage cheese was real. If the cottage cheese looks as if nothing had happened, fresh and white, this should alert. Probably, cottage cheese is made using palm or soybean oil and preservatives.

There is an exit!

There really is a way out, and quite simple. Even if you do not have a personal cow at hand, it is still quite possible to buy natural milk. Three liters is enough to get about half a kilo of cottage cheese. But in terms of quality, it will be simply a divine product. This is how homemade cottage cheese is made. Natural (not powdered!) Milk (3 liters) must be fermented. If you have a lot of time - just leave it warm until it turns sour. If you are in a hurry to try your cottage cheese, add sourdough to milk: sour cream (3-4 tablespoons), kefir (about 1.5 l) or calcium chloride, if you want to make calcium-enriched cottage cheese (6 tablespoons of the usual 10% CaCl 2 solution, which sold in a pharmacy for a penny). Next, the milk is heated on a stove until lumpy curd mass and whey are obtained. The mass is collected in gauze, squeezed and hung so that excess liquid drains. The result is a wonderful dietary product that can be fed even to babies. But do not abuse: an adult should not eat more than one hundred grams of cottage cheese per day.

Many people who care about their health are quite strict about their own nutrition and, in my opinion, this is more than correct at the present time. No, we are not talking about diets, but rather about high-quality and healthy nutrition, in particular, I would like to exchange a few words about checking the quality of cottage cheese.

I have been going in for sports for quite a long time, but to be honest, I began to be interested in proper nutrition about a year and a half ago, and during this time, a lot has changed in my diet. I will not talk about the necessary proportions, calories and other aspects of a healthy diet, since I have already mentioned this more than once in previous articles - now we will talk exclusively about cottage cheese and ways to check its quality.

In the daily diet of any person who wants to acquire a slender figure and get rid of subcutaneous fat, there must be an appropriate amount of proteins, and where can they be taken in sufficient quantities if not from cottage cheese?

In the recent past, without hesitation, I could buy some curd paste or other curd product in the store, hoping that it would be useful, but today I have adjusted my diet in such a way that only high-quality products are present in it. Speaking of cottage cheese, it must be fat-free.

At the present time, there are a lot of various manufacturers and brands that claim that it is their cottage cheese that is the best and most natural But, alas, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. Many manufacturers turn out to be not conscientious enough and resort to some kind of non-standard tricks in order to avoid possible losses and partially save money in the production of cottage cheese.

We all want to eat natural products that do not contain any obscure additives, preservatives or dyes, but how to distinguish a fake from real cottage cheese? How can check the quality of cottage cheese at home?

First of all, when buying cottage cheese, you should pay attention to the date of manufacture and expiration date in order to avoid possible misunderstandings due to your own negligence. Cottage cheese, which has a shelf life of more than 7 days, most likely contains some additives or preservatives, so I advise you to refrain from such a purchase, as if you found that the cottage cheese is too dry or, on the contrary, too liquid. The non-standard consistency of cottage cheese may indicate that technological violations were made during its preparation, which by itself is not acceptable.

Real cottage cheese does not contain vegetable fats (most often palm or coconut fats are added), real cottage cheese is not subjected to heat treatment and should not contain starch.

And now from words to practice - how to check cottage cheese for naturalness?

How to find out if cottage cheese contains starch?

Starch is added to cottage cheese to increase weight - this is financially beneficial to an unscrupulous manufacturer.

Check curd the presence of starch in it can be done in a fairly simple way, known to most people since school days and chemistry lessons. It is enough to add just a few drops of iodine to the curd, and if it turns blue, this will mean that it contains starch. If the cottage cheese has not changed its color and it remains light yellow in the place where iodine was added, I can please you, you have become the owner of good cottage cheese.

The image above clearly shows which cottage cheese you should not buy!

Despite the absence of starch in the cottage cheese of other manufacturers, it is too early to call it quality and even more so natural. The fact is that many manufacturers add vegetable fats to cottage cheese in order to increase its shelf life, and such cottage cheese cannot be real by definition. Based on this, we smoothly move on to the second experiment, and now we will check the cottage cheese for the content of vegetable fats in it.

How to check cottage cheese for the presence of vegetable fats?

First of all, vegetable fats are quite well felt on the tongue after you eat a spoonful of such cottage cheese - after tasting it, you should feel the presence of a fatty film, but there is a more humane way.

To find out if vegetable fats are present in it, you can leave a plate of cottage cheese at room temperature.

Cottage cheese, in which vegetable fats are present, slightly change their color, usually it is weathered and covered with a yellow crust. Such cottage cheese, most likely, will not change its taste and smell, when natural cottage cheese begins to slightly sour under the same conditions, but does not change its color.

After making sure that the cottage cheese you bought has passed all the tests and passed the quality check, remember this manufacturer, packaging and try to stick to this particular brand.

Finally, I want to say that in the intervals between classes in the gym, I personally ate 4 packs of cottage cheese a day and sometimes it really got across my throat. Experimenting with different ingredients, I found an interesting solution for myself, and instead of another serving of cottage cheese, I began to make myself a healthy cocktail by mixing it with a banana.

Of course, they don’t argue about tastes, but just in case a fireman, here my recipe:

• 0.5 liters of milk
• 1 pack of cottage cheese
• 1 banana

Place all ingredients in one bowl and beat with a blender until smooth. If desired, you can add a little syrup or jam.

Now you know how to check cottage cheese and what you can do with it - be healthy!