The world’s oldest cheese is now revealing some of its secrets

When scientists discovered the world’s oldest preserved cheese smeared on the necks of ancient mummies in China, it raised a lot of questions.

Now DNA analysis is answering some of them. It solidified that two of the three curdled samples of kefir cheese are likely made from cow milk, while a third came from goat milk. And a closer look at bacteria in the cheese offers new insights into the origin story of Asian dairy fermentation, revealing how kefir culturing techniques spread across the continent, paleontologist Qiaomei Fu and colleagues report September 25 in Cell.

The samples were first found over 20 years ago in Xinjiang, China, on nearly

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