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”.
Image: / Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0
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]
Comments
16 responses to “Raw Milk Cheeses Could Be Allowed In Australia As Early As Next Year”
So if it’s illegal to sell cheese made with unpasteurized milk, what’s the deal with Aldi selling grana padano which is made with unpasteurized milk according to the back of the package?
that’s an aged parmesan type isnt it ? if that’s the case the 6,9,12,15,24 months kills anything anyway
Ah right, fair enough then. Cheers!
I can see various cheese packages which list “Raw” milk as an ingredient. It maybe that importing of cheese made from raw milk is ok, but manufacturing cheese locally from raw milk is not allowed, due to rules of how to handle milk here, while these rules do not apply to cheese e.g. made in Italy.
Actually, Australia does have a raw milk cheese; the Bruny Island Raw Milk C2….and, it’s delicious. http://www.brunyislandcheese.com.au/. Here’s a great article about raw milk cheese: https://www.facebook.com/BrunyIslandCheese/posts/441701119239770
I’ve had this cheese too. They’re quite proud of the fact it’s Australia’s only raw milk cheese. And yes. it was yumtastic!
“A classic cooked curd cheese …” Raw milk; cooked cheese.
Fucking finally, we get to find out what cheese is supposed to taste like!
I’d rather foods like this come with huge warning labels than have them banned
One of the reasons why people need probiotic supplements is cause we boil the shit out of our dairy and take antibiotics like candy
Also, why aren’t foods with GM ingredients labelled? Until there are long term studies to prove that transgenic (selective breeding is not equivalent to gene splicing in a lab before you get on my case) consumption doesn’t generate heath issues later in life, I want the choice
Raw milk from a healthy grass fed cow, I’d drink with little worry, but given the conditions some cows are kept in and that they’re force fed mars bars to produce more milk, I’d be a little weary
Weary, as in tired? Or wary, as in suspicious?
OMG THIS IS HUGE FUCKING NEWS. as someone who is already part of a raw milk co op (we dont sell it so its legally grey area) I’m not dead haha. never been food poisoned nothing
The long standing laws are there because of the old times when milk was milked by hand in very unsanitary conditions. Today is different.
and most decent co ops can test milk batches to see if any bad bacteria is there. and then they have the option of pasteurizing it and then selling it anyway!
It’s really safe people. plus the health benefits are amazing. I will tell you now if you are lactose intolerant 90% of you WILL TOLERATE RAW MILK. and it’s because the pasteurization process does the following.
converts lactose to BETA Lactose (the body doesn’t like it and is a big reason people can’t tolerate it.
Then the other big issue is when its heated the proteins invert or reverse themselves. this is called an isomer. they are the same protein but instead of being a L- Form they change to a D form and structure wise they are complete reverse (think looking in a mirror) this causes immune responses like rash and other life threatening issues to people who are allergic. again most people if the switch to Raw mil is made. they will tolerate it. not to mention the vitamins and minerals that dont get destroyed! I’ll be ringing and supporting this
This goes for a long time. But this is what a fully setup, and fully responsible company in California does when they farm and sell raw milk! Its much different from 100 years ago people
http://youtu.be/K-mRfSr8hKQ
right. so they can sell manky cheese , but hemp seeds are still illegal for human consumption in Australia…
Raw milk cheese is available in Australia, but only at one place that I’m aware of. It’s a shop called the Bruny Island Cheese Company and it’s located on Bruny Island in Tasmania. It’s bloody delicious, but not easy to come by.
raw milk cheese has been legal in Australia now for a couple of years. Bruny Island Cheese Co. Have a nice one and did a lot of work campaigning to ensure its availability. Now hopefully soon we can have raw milk.
Do yourself a favour and buy some proper Brie de Meaux when the raw milk version comes on sale (maybe don’t smell it before you eat it for the first time)
I cant stand anything but Cheddar (the pseudo cheddar cheese slices or the real stuff), parmesan (the real stuff, the dried version that smells like vomit when you put it on tomato paste is rank) and Tasty are pretty much the only cheeses i can eat, but i could eat a ton of it.