Transporting cheese?!
Answers: I am about to leave on vacation for Paris for 2 weeks. One of the things I love most about France is the wonderful food, especially the cheeses. How in the world can I transport cheese safely back to the US? Does it have to be refrigerated? Will it go bad if it is not? Should I check it in my bag, or carry-on?
Okay I'm not sure how long the flight is between Paris and wherever it is you live in the US.
BUT. I have transported feta cheese from Perth to Singapore. Basically all I did was put the (well-wrapped) cheese in a freezer bag and it lasted the 5 hour flight (and the two hour check in before that and the time spent leaving the airport in Singapore).
This cheese was handcarried, so I'm not sure whether it helped (not sure if cargo area is cooler or warmer than the main passenger area of the plane).
Also, what I find helps with fresh food, is if you put an ice block in the cool bag as well. If you don't have an ice block, fill up a plastic bottle with water until it is almost full (leave room for expansion!) and chuck the bottle in the freezer until it's frozen solid. Then use it as an ice block.
It might be worthwhile asking the cheesemakers or the people at the cheese shop where you are intending to purchase your cheese from about this.
Also, you might want to check with customs to see if there are any quarantine laws in place which may prohibit you from bringing in certain types of cheese.
Hope that helps!
I've brought cheese back from South America and just wrapped it real well and stuck it in my checked baggage and just made sure to take it out and refrigerate immediately when I got home.
The cheese has always been good when I arrived home and nothing ever spoiled and that was after maybe 18 hours of not being refrigerated.
But it might depend on the type of cheese.