Cabot Sharp Cheddar Cheese: 7g Protein per oz, Labelgrade C (62/100)

The short answer

Cabot Sharp Cheddar delivers 7 g of protein per 1 oz (28 g) serving for 110 calories (USDA FDC 2016397) — about 25 g of protein per 100 g, a density that holds its own against plain cooked meat. The ingredient list is genuinely short: fresh pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes — four items, no preservatives, no annatto coloring. It earns a Labelgrade C (62/100). The clean label and strong protein pull the score up; what holds it down is saturated fat and sodium, and those aren’t a Cabot problem — they’re an aged-cheddar problem that no recipe this honest can engineer away.

Why the C

The two F’s do the damage, and both are inherent to the category. Aging cheddar means culturing milk, salting the curd, and pressing out moisture until the fat and sodium left behind are concentrated — a single 100 g of any full-fat aged cheddar lands you near the FDA’s whole-day saturated-fat ceiling. The C is the formula being consistent, not picking on Cabot. Read it as a portion signal: cheddar is a flavor-and-protein accent, not a base you eat by the half-block.

What actually sets it apart

Two things separate Cabot from the cheddar pack, and only one shows up on the nutrition panel.

• The label is the cleanest in the category. Four ingredients, and notably no annatto — Cabot’s white sharp cheddar is uncolored, where many supermarket cheddars add coloring to hit that orange expectation. The B (not A) for ingredient quality isn’t a quality miss; the scoring simply doesn’t distinguish microbial vs animal rennet, so a spotless four-item panel still tops out at B.
• It’s farmer-owned, not corporate. Cabot belongs to ~600 dairy farm families through the Agri-Mark cooperative — the milk comes from members and the profit goes back to them. It doesn’t move a single number on the label, but for shoppers who care who made their food, it’s a rare and real differentiator among national cheese brands.

Cheddar or string cheese?

If you’re buying cheese for protein, this is the trade most people are actually weighing. All three cluster at the same protein density (~25 g per 100 g), so the real difference is the saturated-fat load: Cabot runs ~21 g per 100 g, Sargento string cheese ~12.5 g, and Kraft string cheese ~8 g, because part-skim mozzarella is simply leaner than full-fat aged cheddar. The string cheeses score better overall for it (both land C+, vs Cabot’s C). What Cabot gives back is flavor — sharp, tangy, genuinely Vermont — and the cooking range of a real cheddar. Use a stick of mozzarella when you want lean grab-and-go protein; reach for the Cabot block when flavor and melt matter.

How it compares

Protein is a wash across the board. Cabot carries the heaviest saturated fat of the four but the lowest sodium — the reverse of Babybel, which is closer to cheddar on fat but the saltiest here. The string cheeses win their slightly higher grades on fat alone. Among everything in this set, Cabot’s four-ingredient panel is the simplest; the rest is a flavor and format preference.

How to use it

Treat Cabot the way a cook treats any high-quality aged cheddar: as a dense flavor-and-protein layer, not the main event. One or two ounces grates over eggs, melts into a grilled cheese, or finishes a salad and adds 7-14 g of protein while it’s at it. The watch-out is cumulative sodium — a 2-3 oz “cheese plate” portion stacks to 360-540 mg, so it counts against your day. For a strict DASH or low-sodium plan, cheddar is one to ration. For everyone else, 1-2 oz per meal sits comfortably in a balanced budget.

Ingredients

Fresh pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes. (Verbatim from the USDA Branded Foods entry, FDC 2016397.)

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Scope: This page applies specifically to Cabot Sharp Cheddar Cheese (8 oz (226 g) block) · UPC 078354702086. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.