Cheese gift boxes: Does the cheese go bad?

[MrsBeckyLP]

Twice in the past week we have received cheese and sausage gift boxes at our office. My boss doesn’t want the stuff, but I love cheese. The problem is that he left it sitting out (packaged) at room temperature all night. He put the most recent box in the fridge this morning, but I’m not sure I’ll try it. (I think there were blocks of cheddar, swiss, co-jack, stuff like that.)

I’m curious about this because both came via UPS and were not cold-packaged or anything, so I would imagine it’s been several days since any of it has been refrigerated.

There also were two containers of cheese spread in one of the boxes, which I can’t imagine are still good. It says to keep refrigerated right on the container.

[laura]

I might skip the cheese spread, but the rest of it is most likely fine. I don't know how/why, but my husband was gifted a cheese of the month club and the cheeses never shipped cold-packed and they were always fine.

[Linz]

We got a cheese package from me ex's aunt and uncle last Christmas. It was not cold packaged and UPS left it on our front door step because we were not home. The cheese was very good and kept for several months.

[LRL]

Yup, cheese is good at room temperature- Just make sure it doesn't get hot, then it will spoil.

ETA: Just noticed your signature. Congrats! I assume you probably aren't going to want to eat the soft cheese right now though, right?

[MrsBeckyLP]

ETA: Just noticed your signature. Congrats! I assume you probably aren't going to want to eat the soft cheese right now though, right?

I don't think there were any soft cheeses included, but they were all made pretty locally (I am in Wisconsin, after all) so I would assume them to be pasteurized if they were soft. I don't think I'll actually eat any of them, but I'll bring home a few bricks for DH.

[PG-rated]

It's definitely fine - cheese is hard to ruin.