Cheese – Queso fresco / queso latino is raw food

cheeseraw

In Spain, you can find "Queso latino" in the supermarkets (at least in DIA). It comes in sealed plastic bags as it contains a lot of water and quite soft. I understand that in other locations it's name might be "queso fresco". I've found here some photos of the product and it's varieties here.

My question is, if this variety cheese can be considered raw food.

I think that a good definition of raw food cheese is that it's made of unpasteurized milk and it's not heated above or 40°C

Best Answer

In order to separate the curd from the whey, the milk is heated to a boil, so no, I would not consider this a raw food based on the definition you have in parenthesis.

Edit: In response to the clarified definition of raw food cheese, I would still say queso fresco does not qualify since the milk is heated well above the 40 degrees Celsius in the process of making it. I believe you can use either pasteurized or unpasteurized milk to make it. It's very similar (almost identical) to Indian paneer.