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Food Focus August 2008

More variety on the cheese platter

Cheese lovers in New Zealand have had easier access to authentic French Roquefort for a year now. Since direct importation of the blue-veined cheese from Europe was allowed last August, NZFSA has been looking at the safety framework around allowing production and sale of a broader range of raw milk cheeses

Until recently only three specific varieties of Swiss raw milk cheese (Emmental, Gruyere and Sbrinz) were allowed direct entry to the New Zealand market. Our food laws were changed in 2007 to allow direct importation of some other raw milk cheeses that had been available to New Zealanders for several years via Australia. Under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement products legally sold in Australia can also go on the market here. This enabled the import of Roquefort cheese from Australia, where it had been on sale since 2005. Extra-hard grating cheeses like Parmesan have also been entering New Zealand via Australia for many years.

The law change here brought an end to this anomaly by allowing importers to bring the products directly into New Zealand. However, NZFSA Assistant Director (Technical Standards and Systems) Scott Crerar says some cheese producers were unhappy with the new rules because although imports of certain raw milk cheeses are now permitted, manufacturers cannot make their own domestic products. “In that sense there’s an uneven playing field. To address this inequity we are looking at opening up the market to a broader range of products and will reflect that in our New Zealand standards. This would mean they could be produced domestically as well.”

Weighing up the risks

Raw milk products are higher risk foods than pasteurised milk products. This is because they have not undergone enough heat treatment to always kill pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes and E-coli, which can cause foodborne illness. Soft raw milk cheeses such as Roquefort present a higher risk than hard raw milk cheeses as their moisture levels more easily allow pathogen survival and possibly growth. Although production methods of Roquefort minimise the risks, they are not lowered to the same level as pasteurised products and in other countries illness caused by high numbers of Listeria monocytogenes and E-coli bacteria have been traced to raw milk products. It is particularly the YOPI (young, old, pregnant, immuno-compromised) group that is at risk of getting sick. This group includes babies and toddlers under three, the frail elderly, expectant mothers and those whose immune systems may be weak due to some types of prolonged illness, medication or an operation.

Opening the market to raw milk cheeses means striking a balance between ensuring the safety of our food while acknowledging the consumers’ right to choose. To consider a law change, NZFSA undertook risk assessment work to look at the hazards associated with specific products and how they could be managed. “Joint industry/NZFSA scientific studies have been conducted to provide more information on the hazards in raw milk and how these may be addressed through various processing treatments. The results have been used to develop models that could help determine the risk to consumers and the effect that various management steps have on reducing this risk. This approach is in line with NZFSA’s risk management framework”, says Scott.

At the time Roquefort was introduced to the market, an extensive consumer education campaign was rolled out aimed at the higher risk groups to ensure they were made aware of the risks associated with raw milk cheeses. The campaign included leaflets, posters and point-of-sale brochures explaining the need to read labels to check whether products are made from pasteurised or unpasteurised milk and outlining advice on how to keep safe from any possible risks. “Because raw milk cheeses haven’t traditionally been a part of Kiwis’ normal diets, people aren’t aware of the inherent dangers associated with raw milk products. The onus is on us to ensure they understand that YOPIs are a special group that shouldn’t eat them”, Scott says.

Setting domestic standards

Raw milk cheeses can be produced in many of the countries that New Zealand often compares itself with, such as the EU Member States and parts of Canada. “Internationally there are lots of guidelines around managing raw milk cheeses. Such guidelines specify the types of measures needed to make products to an acceptable level of safety”, Scott explains. NZFSA has been working on formulating a standard that would enable domestic production of some raw milk products. “If we are to allow new unpasteurised milk products on to the New Zealand market they are going to require additional requirements both at on-farm level and during the processing of cheese or other products.” These requirements could include specifications regarding the handling of the milk, the temperature it is treated to, measures to avoid cross-contamination and animal health issues associated with the handling of unpasteurised milk.

NZFSA’s experts are looking at a broad framework approach which would categorise raw milk products according to the risks they represent. Category one would be products that pose no greater food safety concerns than pasteurised cheeses, such as the extra-hard grating, Parmesan-style raw milk cheeses. Category two would be products, such as Roquefort, that are recognised as higher risk for some people but not the general population. “There’s a whole suite of risk management strategies to manage those risks, including public awareness campaigns and additional requirements for production”, Scott says. Category three would be cheeses that cannot currently be produced to an acceptable level of safety for the general population. However, if new techniques or processes are brought in by a manufacturer to bring down that risk, cheeses classified as belonging to this category could be downgraded to category two.

Gauging public awareness

A factor that will feed into the new standard-setting work is public understanding of raw milk (and associated products). Work is currently underway to find out how much people know about raw milk products. Research will be carried out over the coming months to determine the effectiveness of NZFSA’s consumer education campaign. It will focus on consumer awareness of the risks associated with raw milk products and their understanding of the associated terminology. Work will also concentrate on finding the most effective way of labelling products to ensure they alert people to the fact that these are higher risk foods. “Public education is one of NZFSA’s major risk management strategies for these products so we need to get it right”, says Scott.

More information about raw milk cheeses:

Imported food requirements for raw milk cheeses

Food safety issues with raw milk consumption

FAQs about raw milk cheeses

The cheese of kings and popes

Roquefort is one of the oldest known cheeses in the world, with mentions of it in literature dating back as far as 79 AD. According to legend, Roquefort was discovered when a young shepherd abandoned his lunch of ewes’ milk cheese and bread in a cave to run and meet a beautiful girl he saw in the distance. When he returned months later the Penicillium roqueforti mould had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort.

In France Roquefort is often called ‘le fromage des rois et des papes’ (the cheese of kings and popes) because of its favoured status among royals such as the Emperor Charlemagne, who hailed it as his favourite food. By European law only cheeses that have aged in the natural Combalou caves of the Roquefort-sur-Soulzon region may bear the name Roquefort. However, the cheese is widely imitated throughout the world and its name is used rather indiscriminately.