Original photo by JanPietruszka/ iStock
Despite the stereotype we’ve seen perpetuated in cartoons, the idea that mice go wild for cheese isn’t quite accurate. While mice may nibble on cheese if it’s the only available food source, they strongly prefer sugary and carbohydrate-rich options such as seeds, grains, fruits, chocolate, and especially peanut butter. In fact, a mouse’s strong sense of smell actually causes them to be repelled by some stinky cheeses. Soft cheeses also pose a choking hazard for mice due to the critter’s lack of a natural gag reflex.
The reason behind this myth is hard to pinpoint, but one theory relates to how cheese was stored prior to refrigeration. Cheese was usually kept out of the sun in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place (such as a cave or pantry) and generally wasn’t tightly sealed. In an interview with Scientific American, psychologist David Holmes suggested mice may have nibbled on the exposed cheese while searching for other food, leading to their reputation as cheese-fiends.
Oops, incorrect!
It's a fibWhile Cheez Whiz is associated with American cuisine, it actually debuted in Britain in 1952. Kraft unveiled canned Cheez Whiz as a shortcut for preparing the English dish of Welsh rarebit. The product proved so successful that it was introduced to the U.S. market in July 1953.
The belief that mice prefer cheese isn’t a recent stereotype, but rather one that dates back millennia. The Roman philosopher Seneca, who lived in the first century CE, once wrote, “‘Mouse’ is a syllable. Now a mouse eats its cheese; therefore, a syllable eats cheese,” suggesting mice were associated with cheese as far back as ancient Rome. Shakespeare later connected mice with cheese in plays such as King Lear and Troilus and Cressida, long before Hanna-Barbera drilled it home with Tom and Jerry in the 20th century.
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Mickey Mouse was almost originally named Mortimer Mouse.
Cheese is one of the world’s most frequently stolen food items.
According to a 2011 study conducted by the Center for Retail Research, 4% of the world’s cheese ends up stolen, making it the most frequently pillaged food item. But these aren’t just single packages of cheese taken from supermarkets; there have been multiple large-scale criminal operations responsible for tens of thousands of dollars in cheese thefts, as higher-end cheeses can often fetch a pretty penny on the black market.
One notable heist took place in 1998, when £30,000 (around $90,000 today) of award-winning cheddar was lifted from a British farm. In 2022, a Dutch cheese farm lost 161 wheels of cheese valued at $23,000. Perhaps the costliest cheese robbery of all time took place in October 2024, when a U.K.-based cheese purveyor was robbed of £300,000 (roughly $397,000 today) of award-winning cheddar by a still-unknown individual posing as a wholesale buyer.
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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