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 Slow Food Australia has stepped up its battle to persuade Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to overturn a 13 year prohibition on the production and sale of Australian raw milk cheese with a public campaign to petition the Australian parliament. The current Food Standards Code prohibits Australian raw milk cheese and requires that milk for cheese manufacture be pasteurized or thermised to remove harmful bacteria.
However, inconsistent requirements for domestic and imported products permit the sale of a number of imported raw milk cheeses in Australia.
Cheese made from raw milk is considered to be the best in the world, exhibiting flavours that truly reflect the unique natural qualities of the milk it contains says Slow Food international president and founder, Carlo Petrini.
“You can taste the breed, the grass that the animal ate, if it comes from the mountains, hills or valleys, you can taste the expertise of the cheesemaker, and so it becomes a pleasure. So difference becomes the real strength.”
Raw Milk Cheese project coordinator Michael Croft says Australian cheeses are pasteurised, sanitized and uniform due to the prescriptive regulations imposed on cheese production and that with more realistic regulations Australia could become a leading cheese exporting nation.
“When skillfully made, allowing ripening and maturing at its own pace, and developing flavours and textures of complexity and length, cheese retains the inherent qualities of the milk used in its making. It expresses diversity through seasonal and local characteristics, and the art of its maker, like no other food.”
“We call on government to encourage diversity, build skills and knowledge, and return opportunity to Australia’s rural heartland. We call on government to allow Australian dairies to make and market raw milk cheese of quality.”
Raw milk has been found to have a number of health benefits that are greatly reduced during pasteurisation. These components include immune strengthening antibodies and protection against asthma and allergies .
Raw milk cheese production and sale is legal in most of Europe (including the UK), Canada, United States and soon in New Zealand.
In many of these countries – the manufacture and production of the raw milk cheese is monitored – as this is seen as a way to eliminate harmful bacteria.
Rather than imposing prescriptive regulation that prevents innovation and the creation of Australian world-class cheese, Slow Food Australia proposes that regulators set benchmark levels of acceptable risk - a guideline used in many raw milk cheese producing nations. In this way, rather than a complete prohibition, individual cheesemakers will be free to develop any type of cheese they like – with the product independently audited to determine it meets international health standards.
FSANZ mandates the pasteurisation/heat treatment of milk and milk products as a public health measure to remove potential microbiological hazards including Ecoli, campylobacter, listeria and salmonella.
Michael Croft says any health risks can be managed on an individual basis with correct labelling, storage, independent testing, and quality control.
“We see the best way to give cheesemakers the right to make (and consumers to eat) raw milk cheese that is safe, is to set up a testing regime based on individual batches and provide assistance to producers including advice and support for dairy process analysis,” he says. “We will also look at the development of a Slow Food raw milk cheese praesidium in Australia to provide continuing technical support to participating dairies and cheesemakers.”
SLOW Food is an international not-for-profit organisation founded in 1986 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions, people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world – people, communities, animals, plants and the environment.
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