Household Ingredients Compared › Cheddar and Hard Cheese (Singapore)

Cheddar and hard cheese: what's actually in it?

Two different products share the cheese shelf, and the pack front rarely says which one you are holding. A natural hard cheese — a cheddar block, a wedge of parmesan, a gouda — lists four things: milk, salt, cultures and an enzyme/rennet. A processed cheddar lists cheese first, then water, butter, milk solids, emulsifiers, acidity regulator, preservative and colour. Grated and shredded hard cheese sits in between: the cheese is still natural, but an anti-caking agent (usually cellulose, E460) and sometimes a preservative (E200) are added so it does not clump. Ageing is the other hidden variable: a mild cheddar is matured 3–6 months, a tasty cheddar up to 6 months, an extra tasty 9 months, and a vintage cheddar 9–36 months — the ingredient list stays the same while the flavour changes.

This page covers cheddar (mature/mild/sharp, block/sliced/grated) and hard cheese sold in Singapore: parmesan, pecorino, gouda, edam and gruyere. Mozzarella and generic sliced cheese are separate categories and are excluded here — except where a hard cheese is itself sold sliced (e.g. Food For Friends cheddar slices), which is panelled here as a hard cheese in sliced form. Processed cheddar is panelled once, clearly labelled as processed, so the contrast with natural cheddar is visible. This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Natural cheddar is a four-ingredient product. Mainland Vintage, Bega Mild, Bega Tasty, Kapiti aged cheddars and Food For Friends cheddar all list milk, salt, cultures and an enzyme/rennet — nothing else. The difference between them is milk source, rennet type (calves, animal, microbial/non-animal, Mucor miehei) and ageing time, not a longer list.
Grated cheddar adds anti-caking agent and preservative. Bega Tasty Grated lists cheddar cheese plus anticaking agent (E460) and preservative (E200). Emborg Shredded Red Cheddar adds potato starch and colour (E160b) as well.
Processed cheddar is a different product. Cowhead Processed Cheddar (Open Food Facts Singapore) lists cheese, then water, butter, milk solids, emulsifiers (331, 339, 452), salt, acidity regulator (330), preservative (200) and natural colour (160b). Do not read it as a cheddar block.
Shredded parmesan is not just parmesan. Emborg Parmesan Shredded (Open Food Facts, Philippines listing) lists parmesan cheese plus cow's milk, salt, lactic culture, microbial rennet, tapioca starch and preservative (INS202). A block of parmesan lists milk, salt and rennet only.
Gouda, edam, pecorino and gruyere are the gaps on this page. All four are sold in Singapore (Emborg gouda, The Cheese Shop goudas, Kapiti goudas, deli pecorino/gruyere), but no verbatim SG ingredient list was retrieved for any of them in this pass — they are in seen-but-not-verified, not panelled from a generic "gouda is milk, salt, culture" assumption.

At a glance

Product	Type	First ingredient	What else is in it	Pack size (as printed)	Country of manufacture (as printed)
Mainland Block Cheese — Vintage (Sharp & Crumbly)	Cheddar, vintage block	Pasteurised cow's milk	Salt, cultures, calves rennet	200g	New Zealand
Bega Mild Natural Cheddar Cheese Block	Cheddar, mild block	Cow's milk	Salt, culture, microbial rennet	250g	Australia
Bega Tasty Cheese Block	Cheddar, tasty block	Milk	Salt, cultures, non-animal rennet	250g	Australia
Bega Tasty Cheddar Grated	Cheddar, grated	Cheddar cheese	Anticaking agent (E460), preservative (E200)	not stated	not stated
Food For Friends Cheese Chunk — Cheddar Mild	Cheddar, mild chunk	Pasteurized cow's milk	Starter cultures, salt, Mucor miehei enzyme	not stated	not stated
Food For Friends Cheese Chunk — Cheddar Sharp	Cheddar, sharp chunk	Pasteurized cow's milk	Starter cultures, salt, Mucor miehei enzyme, annatto colour	not stated	not stated
Food For Friends Sliced Cheese — Cheddar Sharp	Cheddar, sharp, sliced (natural)	Pasteurized cow's milk	Starter cultures, salt, Mucor miehei enzyme, annatto colour	not stated	New Zealand
Kapiti Te Tihi Aged Cheddar	Cheddar, aged (up to 3 years)	Milk	Salt, cultures, animal rennet	not stated	New Zealand
Kapiti Pakari Aged Cheddar	Cheddar, aged (up to 18 months)	Milk	Salt, cultures, animal rennet	300g	Australia
Emborg Shredded Cheese — Red Cheddar	Cheddar, shredded	Pasteurized cow's milk	Salt, lactic culture, microbial rennet, colour E160b, potato starch	not stated	not stated
Emborg Parmesan — Shredded	Parmesan, shredded	Parmesan cheese	Cow's milk, salt, lactic culture, microbial rennet, tapioca starch, preservative INS202	150g	not stated
Cowhead Processed Cheddar Cheese	Processed cheddar	Cheese	Water, butter, milk solids, emulsifiers, acidity regulator, preservative, colour 160b	500g	not stated

Panelled with verbatim lists: 12 products. Seen-but-not-verified: see the list below. No prices are shown: they change weekly and would go stale. This site compares ingredients only.

Source-strength key used on this page: FairPrice SG ingredient section = strongest SG source; Open Food Facts Singapore (secondary) = SG community listing, flagged secondary; AU / NZ / Philippines list, flagged = that market's list, never presented as the SG pack.

Cheddar blocks — natural

Mainland Block Cheese — Vintage (Sharp & Crumbly)

Pack size: 200g · Made in: New Zealand (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Pasteurised Cow's Milk, Salt, Cultures (Lactococcus Lactis Subsp. Cremoris), Enzyme (Calves Rennet). Composition: Dry Matter (64%) Minimum, Fat in Dry Matter (48%) Minimum, Moisture (36%) Maximum. Contains milk.

Mainland describes Vintage as one of its oldest cheeses, a premium cheddar with a rich, sharp taste. The brand ages it up to 24–36 months depending on the listing (FairPrice says "sharp & crumbly"; Mainland NZ says aged up to 36 months, Anchor Food Professionals says up to 24 months — the ageing statement differs by listing, the ingredient list does not). FairPrice SG ingredient section Calves rennet Vintage

Bega Mild Natural Cheddar Cheese Block

Pack size: 250g · Made in: Australia (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Cow's Milk, Salt, Culture, Microbial Rennet.

Bega describes it as a semi-hard cheese with a clean, mild, young cheddar flavour, for sandwiches, snacking or cooking. Microbial (non-animal) rennet throughout Bega's natural cheddar range. FairPrice SG ingredient section Microbial rennet Mild

Bega Tasty Cheese Block

Pack size: 250g · Made in: Australia (as printed)

Ingredients (Australian retailer listings, agreeing — SG pack not transcribed): Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzyme (Non-Animal Rennet).

Bega's full-flavoured tasty cheddar, aged for up to 6 months; Extra Tasty is matured 9 months and Strong & Bitey (vintage) 9–18 months, per the Bega Heritage Centre — same four-ingredient pattern, longer ageing. Flag: the list is from Australian retailer listings; Bega Tasty is sold at FairPrice Singapore, but no FairPrice ingredient section was retrieved for the block in this pass, so verify the SG pack. AU list, flagged Non-animal rennet Tasty

Food For Friends Cheese Chunk — Cheddar Mild

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Pasteurized Cow's Milk, Starter Cultures, Salt, Coagulating Enzyme From Mucor Miehei.

Described by FairPrice as 100-percent natural, made only from milk from a California dairy farm. The coagulating enzyme is from Mucor miehei (a microbial/fungal rennet), not calves rennet. FairPrice SG ingredient section Mucor miehei enzyme Mild

Food For Friends Cheese Chunk — Cheddar Sharp

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Pasteurized Cow's Milk, Starter Cultures, Salt, Coagulating Enzyme From Mucor Miehei And Annatto Color.

The sharp chunk differs from the mild chunk by one addition: annatto colour, which gives the orange colour associated with sharp/American-style cheddar. The milk, cultures, salt and enzyme are otherwise identical. FairPrice SG ingredient section Annatto colour Sharp

Cheddar sliced — natural hard cheese in sliced form

Food For Friends Sliced Cheese — Cheddar Sharp

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Pasteurized Cow's Milk, Starter Cultures, Salt, Coagulating Enzyme From Mucor Miehei And Annatto Color.

The same list as the sharp chunk — slicing has added nothing. This is why it is panelled on this page (a hard cheese sold sliced) and not on the sliced-cheese page's processed-slice rows: compare it with Anchor Cheddar Cheese Slices on that page, which list cheese (63%) plus water, emulsifiers, milk solids, acidity regulator, preservative and colour — a processed slice, not a natural one. FairPrice SG ingredient section Natural slice Sharp

Aged cheddar — Kapiti

Kapiti Te Tihi Aged Cheddar

Pack size: not stated · Made in: New Zealand (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzyme (Animal Rennet).

Aged up to three years, per FairPrice, giving a sharp, zesty bite and firm, crumbly body, with some lactate crystallisation that gives a sharp crunch. Animal rennet — the one rennet difference from Bega's microbial rennet on this page. FairPrice SG ingredient section Animal rennet Aged up to 3 years

Kapiti Pakari Aged Cheddar

Pack size: not stated · Made in: New Zealand (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section): Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzyme (Animal Rennet).

Aged for up to 18 months, per FairPrice, giving a rich, sharp, tangy texture and firm brittle body. Same four-ingredient list as Te Tihi; the difference is ageing time (18 months vs up to 3 years). Origin: New Zealand. FairPrice SG ingredient section Animal rennet Aged up to 18 months

Grated and shredded hard cheese

Bega Tasty Cheddar Grated

Pack size: 300g · Made in: Australia (as printed)

Ingredients (Australian retailer listings, agreeing — SG pack not transcribed): Cheddar cheese (Cow's milk, salt, starter culture, microbial rennet), Anticaking agent (E460), Preservative (E200).

The cheese itself is the same four-ingredient Bega tasty cheddar; grating adds cellulose (E460) to stop clumping and preservative (E200) to stop mould. Flag: Australian listings; Bega grated cheddar is sold in Singapore, but no SG pack list was retrieved — verify the SG pack. AU list, flagged Anticaking E460 Preservative E200

Emborg Shredded Cheese — Red Cheddar

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts — SG pack not transcribed): Pasteurized cow's milk, salt, lactic culture, microbial rennet, colour (E160b), potato starch.

Emborg's shredded red cheddar adds two things Bega's grated cheddar does not: colour (E160b, annatto) for the red/orange colour, and potato starch (rather than cellulose) as the anti-caking agent. Flag: Open Food Facts entry, market not confirmed as Singapore — verify the SG pack. Open Food Facts, secondary Colour E160b Potato starch

Emborg Parmesan — Shredded

Pack size: 150g · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts, Philippines listing — SG pack not transcribed): Parmesan cheese, cow's milk, salt, lactic culture, microbial rennet, tapioca starch, preservative (INS202).

Shredded parmesan is not just grated parmesan: the tapioca starch keeps it flowing and the preservative (INS202, potassium sorbate) is listed. A block parmesan lists milk, salt and rennet only — see the glossary. Flag: Philippines Open Food Facts entry; Emborg Parmesan Shredded (150 g) is sold at FairPrice Singapore, but no SG pack list was retrieved. Open Food Facts, secondary Philippines list, flagged Tapioca starch

Processed cheddar — for contrast, clearly labelled

Cowhead Processed Cheddar Cheese

Pack size: 500g · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts Singapore): Cheese (Pasteurised Milk, Salt, Starter Cultures, Enzyme), Water, Butter, Milk Solids, Emulsifiers (e331, e339, e452), Salt, Acidity Regulator (e330), Preservative (e200), Natural Colour (e160b).

Panelled once, as processed cheddar, so the contrast is visible: cheese is the first ingredient, but water, butter and milk solids follow, plus three emulsifiers, an acidity regulator, a preservative and colour. This is the Cowhead 500 g processed block (barcode 8888440000024, countries sold: Singapore, origin of ingredients: Australia). Do not read this list as a natural cheddar block's list. Cowhead's grated cheddar and grated parmesan are separate products with no list retrieved — see seen-but-not-verified. Open Food Facts Singapore, secondary Processed — not a natural block

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Cheddar blocks (FairPrice, no list retrieved): Mainland Tasty / Colby / Edam blocks and Mainland Vintage in other sizes, Bega Extra Tasty / Strong & Bitey blocks, The King's Dairy Mild White Cheddar and Mild Coloured Cheddar, Calveley Mill White Mild Cheddar, Kapiti other aged cheddars, Amul Cheese Block. All listed at FairPrice; no verbatim ingredient section retrieved for any of them in this pass. Do not copy the Mainland Vintage or Bega Mild lists onto them — rennet type and ageing differ by product.
Cheddar grated/shredded (no list retrieved): Cowhead Cheese — Cheddar (Grated) 250 g, Emborg Shredded Cheese — Cheddar 200 g, Perfect Italiano grated cheddar (if sold), Tradition Shredded Mozzarella & Red Cheddar (a blend — mozzarella is a separate category, so this blend needs its own note, not a cheddar row). No verbatim SG lists retrieved.
Parmesan (no SG list retrieved): Cowhead Cheese — Pama & Son (Grated) 100 g and Cowhead Grated Parmesan 1 kg bulk, Emborg Gran Amici (Parmesan Grated) 1 kg, Perfect Italiano Parmesan (grated/shredded), and any block Parmigiano Reggiano / Grana Padano sold at FairPrice, Cold Storage or specialty grocers. The Emborg shredded parmesan above is a Philippines listing, not an SG pack list. Block parmesan's expected list (milk, salt, rennet) is not panelled without a retrieved list.
Gouda (no SG list retrieved): Emborg Gouda block, Kapiti Gouda (including Cumin Seed Gouda), Lindahls High Protein Gouda Cheese Slices, Gouda with Truffles / with Chilli Sambal / with Cumin Raw Milk by The Cheese Shop, and any other gouda at FairPrice or The Cheese Shop. No verbatim lists retrieved for any gouda in this pass.
Edam (no SG list retrieved): Edam blocks/balls sold at FairPrice, Cold Storage and specialty grocers — no verbatim list retrieved in this pass.
Gruyere (no SG list retrieved): Gruyere sold at FairPrice, Cold Storage, The Cheese Shop and Little Farms — no verbatim list retrieved in this pass. Do not use a generic Swiss-cheese list as a gruyere panel.
Pecorino (no SG list retrieved): Pecorino Romano / Pecorino Toscano sold at specialty grocers and Little Farms — no verbatim list retrieved in this pass. Pecorino is a sheep's-milk hard cheese; its list must be verified separately from cow's-milk parmesan.
Other hard cheeses at FairPrice / The Cheese Shop: Applewood Smoked Cheddar, The King's Dairy Red Leicester, Delamere Dairy Medium Hard Goats Cheese, and any smoked/flavoured cheddar — no verbatim lists retrieved. Smoked and flavoured variants add smoke flavouring or inclusions, so they must not inherit a plain cheddar list.
Vegan cheddar-style products: Bute Island Vegan Mature Cheddar Style (sliced, grated, block) — plant-based, not cheese; excluded from this page's panels, noted here so they are not mistaken for missing cheddar rows. They belong to a plant-based category, not to cheddar.
Anchor Cheddar Cheese Slices, Chesdale Cheddar Cheese Slices — processed slices, already covered on the sliced-cheese page; not repeated here except as the contrast noted under Food For Friends slices above.
Cold Storage / Giant / Sheng Siong / Don Don Donki / Mustafa / Meidi-Ya / Le Petit Depot / Little Farms / RedMart cheese counters and deli hard cheeses — not inventoried with verified lists in this pass. Deli-cut wedges in particular may be sold without a printed ingredient list on the cut piece.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the table are as sold, per 100 g. No official Singapore Nutri-Grade (A–D) was found printed on any of these listings in this pass, so none is quoted here; no grade has been assigned.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: cheese packs list total sugars, which for hard cheese are the small residual milk sugars (lactose) remaining after fermentation — typically under 1 g per 100 g. A total-sugars figure is never labelled here as "added sugar": no sugar is added to any panelled cheese.

Open Food Facts is a community database and is flagged as secondary where used: the pack and the retailer nutrition section take precedence if they disagree. Figures marked "not stated" were not in the source retrieved; they are not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours. Where two reputable sources conflict (see Mainland saturated fat below), the conflict is stated on the page rather than resolved silently.

Product	Basis	Energy	Protein	Total fat	Saturated fat	Carbohydrate	Sugars	Sodium (salt equiv.)
Mainland Block Cheese — Vintage	Per 100 g, as sold (Mainland official site)	1,800 kJ (430 kcal)	23.3 g	37.4 g	22.5 g — see note	not stated	<1 g	696 mg (salt 1.74 g)

Note on Mainland saturated fat: Mainland's official site and Anchor Food Professionals give saturated fat as 22.5 g per 100 g; a New World NZ retailer listing for the same cheese gives 25.4 g per 100 g. The official-site figure (22.5 g) is tabled; the 25.4 g figure is recorded here as a conflict, not averaged or hidden. Carbohydrate is not stated on the official panel; sugars <1 g is from the CHOICE AU listing for the same cheese.

Observed numbers, no verdict: the only per-100 g nutrition panel verified in this pass is Mainland Vintage above (430 kcal, 23.3 g protein, 37.4 g fat, 696 mg sodium per 100 g). No per-100 g comparison between cheddars is made from a single row.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): no per-100 g nutrition panel was verified in this pass for Bega Mild Natural Cheddar Block, Bega Tasty Block, Bega Tasty Grated, Food For Friends Cheddar Mild Chunk, Food For Friends Cheddar Sharp Chunk, Food For Friends Cheddar Sharp Slices, Kapiti Te Tihi Aged Cheddar, Kapiti Pakari Aged Cheddar, Emborg Shredded Red Cheddar, Emborg Parmesan Shredded, Cowhead Processed Cheddar, and all products in seen-but-not-verified above. Their ingredient panels are unchanged; their nutrition figures are not estimated here, and the Mainland Vintage figures are not copied onto any other cheddar.

How to read a hard-cheese label — the jargon, in plain English

Cultures / starter cultures / lactic culture: The bacteria added to milk to ferment lactose into lactic acid, which curdles the milk and develops flavour. Every natural cheese on this page lists them.
Enzyme / rennet: The coagulant that sets the curd. Calves rennet and animal rennet come from animals; microbial rennet and Mucor miehei enzyme are non-animal (fungal/microbial) alternatives. The type matters for vegetarians — read it, do not assume it.
Mild / tasty / mature / vintage / aged: Ageing descriptions, not different ingredients. Mild is young (Bega Mild is a young cheddar; Anchor's mild is matured 3–6 months); tasty is fuller (Bega Tasty up to 6 months); vintage/aged is longest (Kapiti Pakari up to 18 months, Kapiti Te Tihi up to 3 years, Mainland Vintage up to 24–36 months depending on the listing). The list stays milk/salt/cultures/enzyme throughout.
Annatto (E160b): A natural orange colour from annatto seeds. It is why some cheddars (Food For Friends Sharp, Emborg Red Cheddar) are orange while others (Mainland Vintage, Bega Mild) are pale. Colour, not flavour.
Anticaking agent (E460, cellulose; potato/tapioca starch): Added to grated/shredded cheese so the shreds do not clump in the bag. It is the main difference between a block's list and the same cheese grated.
Preservative (E200, sorbic acid; INS202, potassium sorbate): Added to some grated cheeses to prevent mould. A block of the same cheese does not list it.
Processed cheese: Cheese that has been melted and re-formed with water, butter/milk solids, emulsifying salts, acidity regulator, preservative and colour. The list is visibly longer than a natural cheese's four-ingredient list — that length is the tell.
Parmesan / Parmigiano Reggiano: A hard Italian cheese, aged 12+ months, made from cow's milk, salt and rennet. "Parmesan" on an SG pack may be a style name rather than PDO Parmigiano Reggiano — the list and the origin statement, not the name alone, settle which it is. Grated/shredded parmesan adds starch and often a preservative.
Pecorino: A hard Italian cheese made from sheep's milk (pecora = sheep), not cow's milk. Do not read a parmesan list as a pecorino list.
Gouda / edam / gruyere: Other hard/semi-hard cheeses: gouda and edam are Dutch, washed-curd cheeses; gruyere is a Swiss Alpine hard cheese. Each has its own milk/culture/rennet list — none was verified in this pass, so none is panelled here.

What this page is not

Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. Mild, tasty, vintage, parmesan and processed cheeses are different products, and this page does not rank them.
Not a taste test, and not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
Not complete. Gouda, edam, pecorino and gruyere, most parmesan formats, and the Cold Storage/Giant/Sheng Siong/Donki/Mustafa/Meidi-Ya/Le Petit Depot/Little Farms/RedMart deli counters are not yet panelled, for the verification reasons given, not hidden.

Sources and method

Checked 5–6 November 2026 from: FairPrice ingredient sections (Mainland Vintage, Bega Mild Natural Cheddar Block, Food For Friends Cheddar Mild Chunk, Food For Friends Cheddar Sharp Chunk, Food For Friends Cheddar Sharp Slices, Kapiti Te Tihi Aged Cheddar, Kapiti Pakari Aged Cheddar); FairPrice cheese/shredded-grated category listings (inventory: Emborg, Cowhead, Bega, Mainland, Kapiti, The King's Dairy, Calveley Mill, Food For Friends, Bute Island, Amul, Lindahls, The Cheese Shop goudas); Open Food Facts Singapore (Cowhead Processed Cheddar, secondary); Open Food Facts (Emborg Shredded Red Cheddar, Emborg Parmesan Shredded — Philippines, secondary); Australian retailer listings (Bega Tasty Block, Bega Tasty Grated); Bega Heritage Centre (ageing times); Mainland official site + Anchor Food Professionals + New World NZ + CHOICE AU (Mainland Vintage nutrition, with the saturated-fat conflict noted). Full per-fact source list is in the accompanying research notes. Nutrition section added 5–6 November 2026: figures are standardised to per 100 g where the source gives per-100 figures; per-serving-only figures are labelled as such and are not converted; sugars are total sugars as printed, not added sugars, unless the source states added sugars; salt = sodium × 2.5. Where a full pack list could not be verified, the product is in seen-but-not-verified instead of being panelled.