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U.S. cheese surplus at record high despite average of 37 pounds eaten per capita

Posted at 3:13 PM, Jan 09, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-09 15:13:35-05

(WXYZ) — America's stockpile of cheese is at its highest in more than 100 years, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

According to a report on cold storage from the USDA , America has nearly 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in its stockpile, the highest since records started being taken in August 1917, according to NPR. That's despite Americans eating more than 37 pounds of cheese per capita in 2017, the USDA said.

The report found that the East North Central region of the United States has the highest stock of natural cheese for American and other cheese, with 339 million pounds of American cheese and 374 million pounds of other cheese.

According to the Washington Post , the cheese stockpile is so high because there's too much milk on hand for processors, and milk is more easily stored as cheese. Combine that wil school being out and cows being more productive, you get the record number.

The lowest stockpile of cheese came in 1918, according to the USDA, where there was just over 23 million pounds of cheese.