Raw Milk Cheeses Could Be Allowed In Australia As Early As Next Year

Cheese definitely has levels of extremeness. You can stick to cheddar if you’re not adventurous, or upgrade to Brie or Camembert if you want something with a bit more flavour. Then there are the blues and after that, well, it just gets smellier (and more delicious). What you won’t find in Australia however is cheese made from raw milk, as it’s banned by Food Standards Australia… but that could change as soon as “early 2015”.

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The ban is being reviewed by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, according to a story by the ABC’s Lauren Day. As the article explains, in Australia milk almost always has has to be pasteurised before use, which some argue destroys the taste.

While your average cheese-eater probably doesn’t care about the subtleties, it’s quite the issue for artisans (and lovers of the yellow delicacy). However, if the ban is lifted, cheeses crafted from raw milk “could be on Australian plates by early 2015”, the story states.

You can’t really blame FSANZ for being extra cautious when it comes to this sort of thing, but a little leniency would be nice, especially for businesses with the experience to make raw milk cheese safely:

Food Standards Australia New Zealand CEO Steve McCutcheon said criticisms of the regulator’s conservative approach were unfair. “Regulators across the board in Australia have a responsibility to protect public health and safety and so, as a result of that, they’ll always take a very conservative approach to make sure that any new product that appears on the market is not going to create food-borne illness on a mass scale,” he said.

Fair enough, I say, but it’ll be nice to have the option of giving raw milk cheese a go, if the ban does get lifted.

Raw cheese ban under review by Food Standards Australia [ABC]


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