October 22/Science Letter -- According to a study from the U.S., "This study investigated the effects of aging and fat content on the texture of Cheddar cheese, both mechanical and sensory aspects, over a nine-month aging period. Cheeses of 6, 16 and 33% fat were tested at 0.5, three, six and nine months of aging."
"Cheeses were evaluated by a trained sensory panel using an established texture lexicon as well as instrumental methods, which were used to probe cheese structure. Sensory analysis showed that low-fat cheeses were differentiated from full-fat cheeses by being more springy and firm, and this difference widened as the cheeses aged. In addition, full-fat cheeses broke down more during chewing than the lower fat cheeses and the degree of breakdown increased with aging.