Jamie Oliver calls for help from fans after ‘great cheese robbery’

He continued: “I don’t know what they are going to do with it, really.

“Are they going to unpeel it from the cloth, and cut it and grate it and get rid of it in the fast food industry, in the commercial industry? I don’t know – it feels like a really weird thing to nick.”

The hundreds of truckles of cheese were made up of three artisan cheddars – Hafod Welsh, Westcombe and Pitchfork – which are all award-winning and have a high monetary value.

Neal’s Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for £12.90 for a 300g piece, while Westcombe costs £7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is priced at £11 for 250g.

The firm said it had still paid the producers of the cheese so the individual dairies would not have to bear the costs, and added it was working with police to identify the perpetrators.

It is now trying to deal with the financial setback, a spokesperson said.