I just moved out of my parents house and I'm fairly new to cooking and how to store stuff.
I bought a package of shredded mozzarella like a week or so ago and put it in the fridge. Today I was planning to do something with it but I realized that the inside of the package it wet and some part of the cheese is soggy. There is still 4 months to the expiration date so I don't think it is spoiled and it kinda make sense that it's wet because of the condensation in a cold environment. I just wanted to make sure if it is safe.
Is this normal? If it is, is it safe to use the soggy parts? and how can I prevent this from happening? How should I store these shredded cheeses if I want to buy them when they are on sale and use them later on?
Thanks in advance and sorry if I'm asking something stupid or so obvious, as I said I'm fairly new.
Best Answer
Traditionally, mozzarella is sold extremely fresh - as in made that day or the day before. If it's held for more than a day or so, it comes packaged in a brine. Most of the American stuff is just too soft to be held for packaging like other shredded cheese in the mega-mart.
In the US, being extreme gluttons for convenience, we tend to make do with part-skim shredded mozzarella instead of the good stuff. Slight temperature variations can make the shreds stick together in a globby mass. It's harmless from a safety point of view, and the expiry date can be long after the occurrence of perfectly safe globbiness.
Pro-Tip: Put the globby pieces in the freezer for 20 minutes, and then shred it like a block of harder cheese. Upon heating, it will melt (almost) as if the the globbiness had never happened. I have taken advantage of a few good sales that way. Mozzarella will become... ehem... colorful before it becomes unsafe.
While this answer is more for mozzerella than for other types of cheese; the last paragraph works for any mega-mart shredded cheese.