Most cheese is sold ready to eat, so storage is a matter of maintaining ripeness at its peak rather than aging the cheese further. Once cut, a cheese should be eaten as soon as possible; keep it loosely wrapped, or more tightly for a moist cheese that will dry out quickly. Fresh cheese should be refrigerated in an airtight container. Whole hard cheeses should be wrapped in a slightly damp cloth; wrap individual pieces loosely in plastic.
Ideally, cheese should not be refrigerated but stored in a cool, moist place at around 50°F/10°C. However, in the refrigerator, hard and blue cheeses will alter little for about a week. Grated hard cheese can also be refrigerated for a week, but can mold quite quickly if moist. Delicate soft cheeses lose a good deal of their fragrance within 12 hours of cutting, though refrigerating them up to three days is acceptable. Cheese can be frozen for up to a month, but flavor will be lost; thawed cheese is best used for cooking.