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Low Calorie Mature Cheese – Tried and Tasted

Cheese is one of the nation's favourite sandwich fillers - but more than that, cheese is an essential ingredient in so many recipes. With the average serving (1oz/30g) of mature cheddar cheese coming in at 123kcal and 10.3 g fat, we can see why Weight Loss Resources' members were requesting a tried and tasted comparison of low calorie cheese.

Always willing to oblige, the infamous WLR taste team got stuck into half fat / low fat versions of mature cheese, here's their verdict.

Table 1: Lower Fat Mature Cheese Comparison

Product	Marks and Spencer Half Fat Mature Cheddar	Morrisons Eat Smart Half Fat Mature Cheese	Cathedral City Lighter Mature 30% Less Fat
Ranking	1	2	2
Appearance	Good	Good	Good
Smell	Strong	Good	Good
Taste	Strong	Nice	Nice
Texture/ Consistency	Crumbly	Smooth	Smooth
Conclusion	Strong and crumbly by far the tastiest and best texture.	Not very strong for a mature cheese but pretty tasty.	A great 'Mature yet mellow' alternative to full fat cheese.
Calories (kcal) per 30g serving	83	78	93
Fat (g) per 30g serving	5.1	4.5	6.5

Table 2: More Lower Fat Mature Cheese Compared

Product	Les Kol Half Fat Mature Cheddar	Weight Watchers Low Fat Mature Cheese
Ranking	4	5
Appearance	Good	Good
Smell	Fruity	Unpleasant
Taste	Unpleasant	Unpleasant
Texture/ Consistency	Rubbery	Rubbery
Conclusion	Rubbery with an unusual fruity smell and taste. Hard to swallow.	Hard and  rubbery with an unpleasant flavour.
Calories (kcal) per 30g serving	84	49
Fat (g) per 30g serving	5.0	0.7

M&S have not only produced the best tasting lower calorie mature cheese - but they also beat brand leader, Cathedral City's 'Lighter' addition to their range on calories and fat too!

Having said that, both Cathedral City Lighter and Morrisons Eat Smart would make a good lower calorie alternative to mature cheese.

Les Kol is to be avoided.

And finally, Weight Watchers proved that there is a limit to how far you can reduce the fat and calorie content of cheese. By reducing the calorie and fat content of cheese so dramatically, they have in fact produced an artificial, inedible substance that cannot be called cheese!

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