Deep Freeze: Can You Freeze String Cheese for Later?
can you freeze string cheese

Keep Snacking Forever

String cheese is a fun and versatile snack. It is available in many flavors and can suit even the pickiest palettes. A great choice for anyone looking for a quick and healthy snack, string cheese never really goes out of style. String cheese is usually quite affordable as well, perhaps making it one of the best snacks around.

String cheeses usually come in individually packed, vacuum-sealed bags. This style of packaging helps it to last for quite a long time in the refrigerator, usually as long as six to eight weeks! It can potentially last even longer if you’re willing to take a bit of a risk. This is because “best buy” dates have some built-in wiggle room. We don’t necessarily recommend consuming products after their best buy dates though, and with eight whole weeks to eat your string cheese while it’s fresh, you probably won’t need to!

With that being said, what if you need to keep your string cheese around for even longer? Can you freeze string cheese and turn it into an eternal frozen cheese block? Let’s find out!

What Actually Happens When You Freeze Cheese

People have been freezing food for a long time. The freezing process allows people to keep their perishable goods edible for longer. The freezing process works by slowing down the aging and decay of a perishable item and by slowing the growth of harmful molds and bacteria.

Cold temperatures typically slow down the rate at which molecules are able to move. When those molecules slow down, so does the growth of harmful microbes that spoil food and make you sick! 

Best of all, it is perfectly safe to freeze food to thaw it out later as long as you go ahead and consume it within the recommended time. It’s important to remember that once your food thaws out, those pesky bacteria will wake back up and get back to spoiling your food. 

The question remains: can you freeze string cheese for later in its original packaging and safely consume it later? Absolutely. It is completely safe to turn your string cheeses into frozen string cheese and thaw it to eat later.

Regardless of the type of cheese you choose to freeze, you’ll be able to enjoy it later on with minimal reductions in quality. Freezing entire blocks of cheese can make the  texture a bit chalkier, but any quality reduction should be minimal. You can reduce the chances of getting a blocky, crumbly cheese if you take some storage precautions.

Proper Freezer Storage

string cheese

As mentioned earlier, packages of string cheese are pre-packed in plastic wrap that will serve as a built-in airtight container. This alone should provide enough protection for short-term freezing and prevent any kind of freezer burn or quality degradation.

If you want to be extra certain that wrapped string cheese doesn’t develop any freezer burn or ice crystals, you can try packaging it in its unopened package into a freezer bag before putting your cheese sticks into the freezer.

Freezer bags create an airtight seal that prevents cold air from actually entering your food. The freezer bag stops the freezing process from actually damaging the food through freezer burn.

Freezer burn is a term given to frozen food that has lost all of its moisture. Freezer-burned food can look discolored and wrinkled. If string cheese sticks are freezer burned, they’ll be covered in ice particles and lose most of their flavor.

In the unlikely event that your string cheese sticks do actually become freezer burned, they’ll still be perfectly safe to eat. If you really want to go the extra mile to guard against freezer burn and preserve the stringy texture that you love, place the unopened string cheese into a plastic freezer container to provide an extra layer of protection against the cold air.

By taking simple precautions against freezer burn by using freezer-safe snack bags, you can preserve the original texture of your favorite string cheese brands.

Defrosting Your Slices of String Cheese

Once you’re ready to enjoy your leftover string cheese there really isn’t much left to do. To defrost your cheese, simply remove it from the freezer! You can microwave or use another heat source to speed up the defrosting process, but you would run the risk of ruining the texture or taste.

If you can bear the wait, remove your slices of string cheese from the freezer, including any freezer bags or packaging you may have used. Yes, it really is that easy.

Put the remaining pieces back into the freezer to save for later and be sure not to forget about the cheese you left to defrost on the counter. Once it’s defrosted, the clock begins again for those nasty bacteria, and since it’s a dairy product, you really don’t want it to sit at room temperature for too long.

Preserve Your Snacks Forever

Well, not quite forever, but by freezing your string cheese you’ll extend the shelf life by months, if not years. If you bought your string cheese in bulk and found that you have a little more than you know what to do with, now you know that you can go ahead and place the excess right into the freezer.

So, can you freeze string cheese? Cheese lovers can rejoice because you absolutely can freeze your string cheese to enjoy it whenever you want!

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