What's the deal with parmesan, Toronto?

A well-frequented local grocery store has taken the hard cheese triangles off their dairy shelves in an attempt to thwart devious cheese bandits.

Head into the No Frills at Dufferin Mall to grab a quick block of cheese for your pasta dinner and you'll be hard pressed to find the off-white gold.

Instead, you'll see a lone sign directing shoppers to ask for assistance if they want to buy parmigiano, surround by stocked shelves of mozzarella, feta and cheddar.

And because you really, really need just a crumb of parmesan, you'll have to ask one of the staff members — possibly a teenage produce clerk who may be slightly annoyed at your cheesy request — to help you out. 

Lo and behold, a cart of cheeses will be rolled out right to your feet from the back of the store. You'll then have to pick through blocks of parmesan in a cardboard box until you find the perfect hunk of fermented dairy.

This laborious process is to stop thefts of parmesan, which is apparently a thing now. 

This isn't a new move from No Frills, as one staffer estimates the cheeses have been held in the back for around a year.

But with prices as high as $23 (and rising, thanks to inflation,) it's no wonder the grocery store is doing everything it can to stop thefts, however inconvenient.

Of course, pre-shredded parm is still available on shelves — but it's nothing in comparison to a hard block of cheese that almost always leads to injury when shredding. 

This is just another tale of forbidden snacks in the city, a la the 7-Eleven at Bloor and Spadina, which has resorted to storing its beef jerky in glass cases to stop greedy hands.