For a while now, my wife and I have been trying to figure out why it was so hard to find kosher certified cheese. There are a lot of food products in normal grocery stores that have been certified kosher by a rabbnic authority. All you have to do is look for the seal of a rabbinc authority on the packaging. Cheese, however, is a different matter.
We had talked to several people to ask why this was the case and received a very wide range of answers, ranging from lard being used as a thickening agent to the rennet coming from swine. I recently came across a website from a rabbinic kosher authority with clear information as to why certain cheeses are not certified kosher, clarifying a lot of the myths behind cheese production. You can find the article on the Star-K website, and information on rennet in general on Wikipedia.
Darren,
Do you have a Publix or Kroger grocery store in your town? Ours and a few other frum families have been able to order lots of glatt meats, kosher cheese(even parmesan!) and just about anything else. We are slowly turning it into an all kosher Publix( minus the on duty rabbi). The local jewish community (reform and conservative) are now starting to get on the wagon too so the demand has increased. We had a meat manager who used to work at the all kosher publix in Atlanta, so he knew what order forms to get, gave us copies and told us order what we want and he’ll get it.
I’m sure even if you don’ have the above stores, your stores should have a listing somewhere in the store ordering system to get it. Sorry for the long post.
Darren,
Why have you chosen Orthodox halacah on cheese? Conservatives and even some orthodox treat all cheeses as kosher.