ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,329,119, issued on June 17.
"Cheese ripening" was invented by Herman Frank Burghout (Wageningen, Netherlands) and Johannes Antonius Penders (Wageningen, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure relates to a naturally ripened, block-shaped cheese of the hard or semi-hard type comprising a water-permeable coating applied onto the entire surface of the cheese and a water-impermeable material applied onto the water-permeable coating, wherein at least all vertices and the four edges that connect the top face and bottom face of the block-shaped coated cheese are covered with a layer of the water-impermeable material wh...