The global cheese-making industry processes approximately one quarter of total raw milk production to create a variety of consumer cheeses, and cheese processing can be very energy-intensive. Characterizing energy usage in existing cheese markets and plants can provide baseline information to allow comparisons of energy performance of individual plants and systems. In this paper, we analyzed energy data compiled through extensive literature reviews on cheese-making across various countries and regions. The study has found that the magnitudes of average final energy intensity exhibited significant variations, ranging from 4.9 to 8.9 MJ per kg cheese across a few countries. In addition, the final energy intensity of individual plants exhibited even more significant variations, ranging from 1.8 to 68.2 MJ per kg of cheese from the countries in this study. These significant differences have indicated large potential energy savings' opportunities in the sector. The paper also indicates that there are positive association between implementation of energy measures and the decreasing trends of specific energy consumption over time, and suggests that developing and promulgating an energy-benchmarking framework including a process step approach and efficiency measures should be recommended for evaluating energy performance and improving energy efficiency in cheese-making industry. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.