A method of forming cheese shreds having a wide or modified crescent shape is provided. By one approach, the method includes preparing a block of cheese by chilling the cheese to a predetermined temperature and/or reducing the size of the cheese block into cheese portions or cubes. Next, the cheese portions or cubes are fed into a shredder with shredding blades having a sinusoidal configuration. The shredder is operated to shred the cheese into modified crescent shapes with an upper and lower curved surfaces and tapered ends therebetween. Further, the modified crescent shaped cheese shreds have improved meltability such that a smaller amount of cheese can be used to achieve greater coverage, flavor, and mouth feel, as compared to previous cheese shred configurations.
