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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Mexico, Central America, Andes

Queso fresco (Mexico, Central and South America)queso fresco

Warm milk is set with rennet, and the curd is cut, drained, broken up and salted, then pressed lightly into a round. It is eaten within days, while it is still soft, crumbly and mild. It barely ferments, so its pH stays near that of milk, which is why it is a known Listeria risk. Made in 6 steps over 7 days. The longest step, keep cold and eat within a week, takes up to 7 days (Powers-Hammond L. 2019) and runs at up to 4 °C (Powers-Hammond L. 2019). Salt is 1.5–2 % (Holle M.J 2018). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Enterococcus faecium and Lactococcus, Lactobacillus and Leuconostoc in artisanal raw-milk cheese from Sinaloa do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 7 daysSet[wsu-pnw539]Keep cold and eat within a week
Temperatureup to 4 °CSet[wsu-pnw539]Keep cold and eat within a week
Salt1.5–2 %Measured[holle2018]Break up, salt and press into a round
AciditypH 6.6–6.9Measured[holle2018]Break up, salt and press into a round

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome recipe from Washington State University Extension (PNW539, revised 2019), written so that the cheese is made from pasteurised milk. Traditional farm cheese is made from raw milk with no fixed amounts.
2 qtPasteurised whole milk · Cow, goat or sheep milk; whole or 2 % milk, no lower[wsu-pnw539]
1 qtPasteurised cultured buttermilk · Supplies lactic bacteria and acid[wsu-pnw539]
7 tsp (2 tbsp + 1 tsp)White vinegar[wsu-pnw539]
1 tablet, dissolved in 1/2 cup cold waterRennet[wsu-pnw539]
3/4 tspSalt[wsu-pnw539]
1 tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh; 1–2 tbspHerbs; fresh peppers (optional)[wsu-pnw539]
Starternone in traditional raw-milk cheese (the milk's own bacteria); buttermilk or added cultures in pasteurised versions; rennet sets the curd

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days

Start
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63 °C

What changes: Milk held at 145 °F for 30 minutes kills the harmful bacteria first

Step 1 of 6
Pasteurise raw milk, or start with pasteurised milk
Time
30 min
Set
Temperature
63 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
L. mesenteroides
Enterococcus faecium
Lactococcus

Traditional queso fresco is made from raw milk; the extension recipe adds this step for safety. Output: pasteurised milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills the harmful bacteria in raw milk

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Queso fresco is set with rennet, then salted, pressed lightly and eaten within days. It has almost no acid development, so its pH stays near 6.6–6.9. Cottage-type and lactic fresh cheeses are set mainly by acid, and queso blanco is set by heat and acid without rennet.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Queso blanco (acid-heat)Hot milk set with vinegar or lime juice, no rennet; a heat-and-acid product
  • Queso panelaBasket-moulded, unsalted or lightly salted rennet cheese; fresh
  • RequesónWhey cheese made by heating whey
  • Queso de bola de OcosingoChiapas; a ball of aged cheese inside a hard shell of stretched cheese

Safety

Queso fresco keeps a high pH and high moisture, and Listeria monocytogenes grows in it even at 4 °C. CDC counts unheated queso fresco-type cheese, even from pasteurised milk, as a risk for people prone to listeriosis, and says to heat it to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming. Raw-milk queso fresco has carried staphylococci, coliforms and Salmonella. Pasteurise the milk, keep the cheese at 40 °F (4 °C) or below, and eat it within a week.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, which grew at least 2.5 log cfu/g in 14 days at 4 °C in every US brand tested; Coagulase-positive staphylococci and coliforms, high in raw-milk cheeses; Salmonella and other enteric taxa found by sequencing in raw-milk cheese from Sinaloa.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Latin-American families have made queso fresco from fresh raw milk for generations. In the United States, the WSU Extension recipe was first written in 2000 for the Abuela Project, in which grandmothers in eastern Washington taught families to make it from pasteurised milk; the authors report a rapid fall in Salmonella illness in Yakima County afterwards.

  1. [wsu-pnw539] Powers-Hammond L. 2019, Fresh Cheese Made Safely, Pacific Northwest Extension publication PNW539 (Washington State University, Oregon State University, University of Idaho), revised November 2019gov
  2. [holle2018] Holle M.J., Ibarra-Sánchez L.A., Liu X., Stasiewicz M.J., Miller M.J. 2018, Microbial analysis of commercially available US Queso Fresco, Journal of Dairy Science 101:7736–7745 (abstract)paper
  3. [renye2008] Renye J.A., Somkuti G.A., Vallejo-Cordoba B., Van Hekken D.L., Gonzalez-Cordova A.F. 2008, Characterization of the microflora isolated from queso fresco made from raw and pasteurized milk, Journal of Food Safety 28:59–75 (abstract)paper
  4. [garcia2026] García Guerrero J.T., Peinado Guevara L.I., Campista León S. 2026, Microbial ecology of artisanal fresh cheese from Sinaloa, Food Microbiology 138:105073 (abstract)paper
  5. [cdc-listeria] CDC, Preventing Listeria Infection (web page, accessed 2026-10)gov