World's oldest cheese found - and could kill anyone if they try to eat it
A group of archaeologists have found the world’s oldest cheese – 3300 years old and riddled with deadly bacteria.
The cheese was found by scientists in Egypt.
They discovered it while working on the tomb of Ptahmes, a former mayor of Memphis, the former capital of Egypt.
The team of archaeologists from the Universities of Cairo and Catania, found the festering cheese buried in a tomb that was first unearthed in 1885.
Despite that, the food had lain undiscovered for another 133 years, according to a study published in the academic journal Analytical Chemistry last month.
“The material analysed in this study is probably the most ancient archeological solid residue of cheese ever found to date,” the study said.
The cheese was found in broken jars.
They were filled with a mysterious solid white substance, which the scientists dissolved and later analysed.
This revealed peptides associated with dairy products produced by cow milk and either sheep or goat’s milk.
But anyone tempted to taste the cheese would be in for a nasty shock.
It was riddled with a bacteria called Brucella Melitensis, which is potentially deadly and can cause stomach ache and a fever as well as other symptoms.
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As well as being the first known cheese. It is also probably the earliest instance of a bacteria.
Despite finding the cheese, scientists have not been able to find the mummified body of Ptahmes nor the rest of his family.