Cheddar -- Is it really orange?

Have you ever wondered if cheddar cheese is naturally orange or colored as to appeal to our sense that artificiality is somehow more appealing? I mean, cheese is made from milk and milk is not orange. Irish cheddar is not orange -- it is actually the color of milk.

I have always assumed we Americans color our cheese for some odd American reason -- the brighter the better! Kids won't eat it if it's not pretty. Something like that. So, I thought it was time I ask the internet for the answer. Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the matter:

Like many cheeses, the colour of Cheddar cheese is sometimes modified by the use of food colourings. In parts of the United States and Canada, Annatto, extracted from the tropical achiote tree, is used to give Cheddar cheese a deep orange colour. The origins of this practice have been long since forgotten, but the three leading theories appear to be:

• to allow the cheese to have a consistent colour from batch to batch
• to assist the purchaser in identifying the type of cheese when it is unlabelled
• to identify the cheese's region of origin.

I feel better knowing that at least it is not an artificial color. I do like a nice Welsh or Irish cheddar tho....