🧀 Feta
A brined cheese made from sheep's milk (up to 30% goat's milk allowed), a protected Greek name.
Feta is a Greek white brined cheese made from sheep's milk, sometimes blended with goat's. It comes out soft, crumbly and slightly grainy, with no rind and a salty, tangy taste.
In the EU the name is not up for grabs. Since 2002 “Feta” has been registered as a protected designation of origin (Regulation (EC) No 1829/2002), after the European Commission ruled that it is not a generic term. Cheese with this name may be made only in mainland Greece and on the island of Lesbos, from the milk of local sheep and goat breeds.
The method is short to describe and slow to finish. The milk is curdled with rennet, the curd is cut and left in moulds to drain under its own weight, then salted and matured in brine: first warm, then cold, for at least two months in total.
Those rules on milk and region are what set feta apart from bryndza and other white brined cheeses of the Balkans. Against cottage cheese, mozzarella or paneer the difference is the process itself: draining, salting and months in brine.
Comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that feta is a goat's cheese?
No. It is made from sheep's milk or a mix in which goat's milk is no more than 30%. In the EU, cheese made from cow's milk cannot be called feta.
Is “Greek-style” or “salad cheese” the same as feta?
No. Wording such as “Greek-style”, “salad cheese” or just “white cheese” signals a different cheese, not feta made to the specification; look for “Feta” with the EU PDO symbol and Greece as the origin.
Can you eat feta when pregnant?
Yes, if it is pasteurised: the NHS lists pasteurised soft cheeses such as feta among those safe in pregnancy and notes that most supermarket cheese is pasteurised, which the pack will say.
Can feta be baked?
Yes. It is baked and served with olive oil and oregano, and it also goes into Greek salad and pies such as spanakopita and tiropita.
Cheese
Feta belongs to brine cheeses and to protected cheese names: it is registered in the EU as a PDO of Greece. It is made from sheep's milk with up to 30% goat's milk, curdled with rennet; the curd goes into moulds without pressing, is salted and kept in brine for at least two months. The cheese is white, rindless, salty and crumbly. Tip: keep opened feta in its own brine and drizzle it with olive oil before serving in a Greek salad.
Composition per 100 g
| Fat | 21.5 g |
|---|---|
| Protein | 14.2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 3.88 g |
| Energy | 265 kcal |
| Calcium | 493 mg |
How it connects to milk
🧀 Feta ← used for ← 🥛 Goat's milk → type of → 🥛 Milk
How it connects to Cheese
Links
- Made from which milk
- 🥛 Goat's milk
- Made from
- 🥛 Sheep's milk
- What it contains
- 🧂 Brine
- Traditions
- 🌍 Southern Europe, 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks
- Product type
- 🏺 Traditional dairy products
- Part of
- 🧀 Cheese, 🧂 Brined cheeses, 🏷️ Protected cheese names, 🇬🇷 Greek cheeses
- Similar and different
- 🧀 Dodoni Feta PDO, 🧀 Dodoni, 🧀 Sirene, 🧀 Beyaz peynir, 🧀 Ayib, 🧀 Telemea, 🧀 Halloumi, 🧀 Bryndza
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Oak barrel, 🍷 Wine and cheese
- In other topics
- Protected and generic food names, 🧂 Brine, 🫒 Kalamon
Recipes
What to read next
- 🧀 Dodoni Feta PDO — Dodoni Feta PDO is Dodoni's feta made from pasteurised Greek sheep's and goat's milk from Epirus, sold in brine, barrel-aged and with less salt.
- 🌍 Southern Europe — The Mediterranean south of Europe — Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal: sheep's and goat's milk cheeses and most of the world's olive oil.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks — The people of Greece, in the south of the Balkans and on Mediterranean islands; olives grown for over 4,000 years, with olive oil, feta and wine.
- 🧀 Dodoni — Dodoni is a Greek dairy company from Ioannina in Epirus, started in 1963 and known for feta PDO, Kefalograviera PDO, yellow cheeses, yoghurt and halloumi.
- 🍷 Oak barrel — A wooden vessel made of oak staves in which wine matures, picks up new aromas and slowly takes in air.
Similar
🧀 Parmesan · 🧀 Halloumi · 🧀 Kalathaki Limnou · 🧀 Batzos · 🧀 Sfela · 🧀 Pichtogalo Chanion
ℹ️ Dairy products contain lactose and milk proteins: if you are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk protein, ask a doctor.