String cheese

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An individual string cheese package

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String cheese is a group of cheese considered to be a snack food.

As currently sold in the United States, string cheese is roughly cylindrical, about 6 inches (15 cm) long and less than 1 inch (2 cm) in diameter. The cheese is cut and packaged, either individually or as a package of several lengths. The individual wrapping is preferred by some for its portability, while families and other groups of people usually prefer the larger package for economics. It is nearly always mozzarella but may be another semi-soft cheese instead. String cheese is eaten by pulling strips of cheese from the cylinder along its length and eating these strings.

Due to the amount of processing, string cheese is quite high in salt and hence is not recommended to be eaten in large quantities.^{[citation needed]}

Traditional Armenian string cheese is often made with a different white cheese base, depending on local production.^[1] It includes black caraway seeds and a middle-eastern spice known as mahleb, and it comes in the form of a braided endless loop.^{[citation needed]}

The cheese forms strings because of the way it is pulled during processing. There is also Syrian cheese processed this way. Other cheeses are only cut and pressed, not pulled, and don't develop strings.

If the cheese is placed in a microwave oven for 30 seconds, the structure will change and it will lose its ability to form strings.^{[citation needed]}