Connecticut Farmers Worry A Change In Required Time For Aging Could Hurt Their Products
By WILLIAM WEIR, The Hartford Courant
June 5, 2011
Full Article
At Sankow Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme, Suzanne Sankow talks about the different aging processes for her cheeses.
Like others who produce raw milk cheese, Sankow fears that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could take that bite out of her product.
Citing a number of outbreaks of food-borne diseases in raw milk cheese, the FDA is reviewing whether the current 60-day aging requirement is sufficient to kill off the pathogens in the cheese.
Raw milk cheese is any cheese made with unpasteurized milk, and in the U.S., small independent businesses make most of the raw milk cheese on the market. Raw milk cheeses generally sell for prices significantly higher than the average pasteurized cheese, but fans say it’s worth it: Other cheeses don’t offer the same textures and rich flavors.
Ideally, Gillman said, regulations would focus more on ensuring that cheese is made in a safe environment rather than mandatory aging requirements. He noted that some of the best cheeses are made in France, where there is no minimum aging requirement.
“Raw milk has been and can be made safely,” he said.” “We live in an environment that’s overly focused on sterility, and there’s an unwillingness to accept that food is part of a natural process.”
Whatever happens, said Vermont cheesemaker Mateo Kehler, it probably won’t happen for a while.
“Now there are a lot of different cheeses that are out there,” he said. “Some are actually more risky as they age.” They become more alkaline as they ripen, he said, “which means that they support more microbial growth.”
“Listeria, which is the big bugaboo in the cheese industry right now, can’t be aged out of cheese, and it’s the prime pathogen of concern. Pasteurized cheese is as likely to be contaminated [with listeria] as raw milk cheese,” he said. “Pasteurization doesn’t solve the root problem, which is environmental, when it comes to listeria in cheese.”