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Soft Cheese such as white mould, washed rind, and blue varieties should be ripe and ready to eat - use best before date as a guide. All Australian Cheese will  display a use by or best before date, here's what they mean.

Use By Date
Generally, fresh cheese styles in the unripened and stretched curd categories will have a use by date.  These cheeses should be consumed as fresh as possible and may not be safe to eat after the use by date.  Most most other cheeses will have a best before date.

Best Before Date
Is an indication of when the cheesemaker predicts the cheese will be perfectly ripe, so it is generally best to consume it close to that date.  After the best before date, the quality of the cheese is likely to deteriorate, but it won't necessarily be unsafe to eat.

Storing Cheese

• Leave small, whole cheeses (such as Camembert) in their original wrappings or containers

• For portioned cheeses, remove plastic wrap and re-wrap in paper. Proper cheese or deli paper is best, but baking paper does the trick.

• If vacuum sealed and unopened, cheese will keep for months.  Once opened, remove from plastic, re-wrap in paper as above.

• Store the wrapped cheeses in the fridge, in a container with a loose-fitting lid (if it's airtight, the cheese can't breathe). The vegetable crisper is the best place as it's humid and slightly warmer.

• Stop stronger-smelling cheeses in a  separate container so the smell doesn't taint other cheese or food in the fridge.