Shoppers in Britain are choosing sheep’s cheese over cow or goat’s cheese, a retailer has reported.

Supermarket Waitrose reported a 21% year-on-year sales upturn of products including Spanish Manchego, Roquefort and Feta sheep’s cheese.

The increase outpaced the 15% growth in goat's cheese and a 5% rise in cow's cheese sales.

Consumers are becoming more adventurous and are continually experimenting with new tastes and flavours when it comes to cheese said Waitrose.

A few years ago they hesitated about goat’s cheese – but now that has become mainstream, and sheep’s cheese is certainly heading in the same direction, it said.

This trend has been fuelled by the popularity of cheeses that people will have sampled on holiday such as Feta from Greece and Manchego from Spain. But sheep’s cheese is also becoming an increasingly popular alternative for those who are intolerant to cow’s milk.

Sheep milk boasts a wide number of health benefits when consumed as part of a healthy diet and is a rich source of calcium, phosphorous and zinc, as well as B group vitamins.

Examples of Sheep’s cheeses include:

• Roquefort - produced in the French village of Roquefort sur Soulzon. The cheese is left to mature in naturally damp limestone caves where the mould Pencillium rouqeforti causes the characteristic blue veining. Moist soft textured blue with a pronounced savoury tang can be included in dressings, salads, pasta dishes or quiches.
• Manchego – made from the unpasteurised milk of sheep that graze the vast La Mancha plains in Spain, it is aged for nine months for a full fruity flavour contains preservative and ewes milk. It has a deliciously complex, buttery and rich taste that is perfectly suited to ripe figs, crisp young apples, walnut bread, ham and chorizo sausages.
• La Granja Manchego - abundantly nutty and briny, hints of fruit and caramel with a sweet lanolin aroma.
• Ossau Iraty – From France's Basque Country, it has a well-rounded yet delicate and long lasting sweet flavour. Very good with semi-dried cherries.

Relevant links

Waitrose

Unusual additions to Waitrose food range

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