This literature review discusses the concepts and factors that influence industrial cheese yield and compiles the latest studies conducted in Brazil involving this theme. In seeking to support managerial decision-making, cheese yield can be measured at the end of processing or estimated prior to this. In research and industry, measuring and estimating yield can be evaluated under the effect of processing, from different proportions and characteristics of ingredients (mainly milk quality), to processing factors involving the steps of the actual production (handling of the raw material and the curd coagulation conditions, salting, maturation, etc.) and the equipment. The number of Brazilian studies that have sought to answer questions about this topic in recent years was reasonable. The vast majority of them considered yield in its most basic aspect, which is obtained by measuring what was produced. Few studies used the perspective of prediction, indicating that there is room for a more empirical approach that allows for obtaining other types of answers regarding efficiency in the production of cheese, and which is shown as an opportunity for Brazilian research to advance.Keywords: efficiency; equation; cheese production.Practical Application: Understanding how cheese yield is evaluated and how Brazilian research has treated it.Cheese yield in Brazil: state of the art Food Sci. Technol, Campinas, 36(4): 563-569, Oct.-Dec. 2016 564 the key search words used were: "rendimento", "queijo", "yield", "cheese" and "cheese yield".