Target Customer Buys a Packet of Swiss Cheese — Then They Found Something Odd in the Slices
Of the thousands of cheese varieties available in the world, Swiss cheese is arguably one of the most loved. Exploding with a smooth, creamy texture in the mouth, a hunk of pale-yellow, semi-hard cheese is often shredded or sliced to make appetizers like sandwiches, pastas, and cheese-based sauces even more tantalizing. However, when the Reddit user u/pianoshootist tore open a packet of Swiss cheese, they were in for an irksome surprise. Punched into these slices were holes, so many that they wondered whether these were simply for display or were they had been gashed into the milky slices deliberately. Her post prompted thousands of Reddit users to cook up bizarre scenarios about these holes, from “it’s just inflation” to “that’s the most American thing.”
“They only put holes in the display part of the Swiss cheese,” the Reddit user wrote in the post title. They also shared a photo of a blue packet of Good & Gather, a Target-owned brand's “Classic” Swiss cheese and one of the slices held above the packet. The cheese slice that slipped out of the packet seems to be featuring tiny holes running down one side of the square-shaped slice, as if someone had treated it like binder paper and punched a line of holes with a paper punch. On Target, the product description reveals that this packet contains ten deli-style cheese slices, which are rich in calcium and saturated fat.
"Whip up savory mushroom Swiss burgers or create a decadent fondue with ease with Swiss Deli Sliced Cheese from Good & Gather. This pack of sliced Swiss cheese comes with 10 slices that are perfect for adding to both hot and cold sandwiches, cutting up to serve on a cheese tray or melting down to top cooked veggies or to make a dip," the description reads. One of the product images depicts slices with holes lying on a cutting board. But there’s no explanation for these holes whatsoever mentioned on the website. As it turns out, these holes are one of the biggest mysteries of Swiss cheese.
Called “eyes” by cheesemakers, these tiny holes punched into the slices of Swiss cheese have stirred the curiosity of researchers for decades. Some postulated that the holes are created by bacteria that get trapped in milk in the form of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles during the process of cheesemaking. Others imagined that the holes were probably gnawed into the cheese by the sharp teeth of mice. But according to a report by the BBC, none of these is the real reason behind the holes, although they may contribute to the hole-y formation. Scientists from Agroscope, a government agricultural institute, revealed that the holes are created by flecks of hay. "Microscopically small hay particles" would fall into buckets collecting milk and develop into bigger holes as the cheese matures, they said.
However, for other Reddit users who weren’t aware of this research, the holes in the cheese slice triggered another level of imagination. People came up with all kinds of bizarre and hilarious theories about why and how these holes were formed. One theory was “inflation.” One user, for instance, commented on the post, saying, “I’m sitting with one of the guys who pokes the holes in the Swiss and can confirm that this is what they’re doing. Inflation.” u/ComfortableFuel-6343 quipped, “I've seen cartoons. They get a mouse with a tiny Tommy gun to shoot a bunch of holes in each individual wheel.”
A former deli worker, u/BillyBabushka, said, “This just kind of sometimes happens with Swiss, especially near the ends of the block. The holes aren't placed, they happen during a chemical reaction in the manufacturing process, and they tend to appear less frequently near the edges of the mold, they were in from what I understand.”