Peeling the wax is half the fun of it. What the cheese actually is, and whether that wax is meant to be eaten, are questions most people never get answered.
First: the wax is not for eating
To answer the most common question directly — the red shell is a food-safe wax, but it is not meant to be eaten, and the company says exactly that in its own FAQ. It meets the standards for food contact, and swallowing a little by accident will not hurt you, but it passes through undigested and offers nothing. With small children it is worth peeling for them, since a whole piece is a choking risk.
So what is inside?
A semi-hard cheese made the way Dutch edam is made. Milk is warmed and set with a coagulant, the curd is cut and drained, pressed into shape, bathed in brine and then ripened. At no point is anything melted down and set again, which is what separates it from the slices and the foil wedges: this is natural cheese, not processed. The mild, gently salted flavour is edam's character too.
That very cheese, and its cousin:
The wax is red because of ships
Edam has been sold under wax for centuries. It was firm and it kept, so it survived long sea voyages, and the wax held off drying and mould. Red was the colour used on wheels bound for export. Wrapping a palm-sized cheese in wax looks like overkill until you realise it is a centuries-old shipping method shrunk down — and it is exactly why a single portion keeps as long as it does.
No animal rennet
According to the company's own FAQ, no rennet of animal origin is used; a microbial enzyme sets the milk instead. Finding mass-produced cheese that vegetarians can eat is harder than it sounds, and this is one of the few. Formulations do vary by country and product line, so if it matters to you, the ingredients list on the pack in your own market is the thing to check.
The size you know is from 1977
The brand first appeared in 1952; the bite-sized version everyone pictures came in 1977 and went on to eclipse the original. The company behind it began in 1865 in the French Jura, ripening and trading gruyère. A house that handled Alpine hard cheese became known worldwide, a century later, for individually wrapped snacks.
The cheese that house started with:
How to eat it
Plain is the point, but straight from the fridge the flavour is shut down; fifteen minutes out and the milkiness comes back. Split it over a cracker, or serve it with apple or grapes, and the mildness turns into an advantage. It melts well enough for toast — peel the wax first. And the wax is precisely why it belongs in a lunchbox or a rucksack.