Cured Speaks On Artisanal Cheese And The FDA

Beloved local cheese, wine and everything else yummy shop Cured has a very interesting discussion of new regulations affecting raw milk cheeses in its newsletter this week. Take a look at what they say:

The Crackdown on Raw Milk Cheeses: Many of you have asked lately about the effects of the FDA and EU Health and Safety regulations on what cheeses we are going to be able to carry in the future.. The world of artisanal cheese is in an interesting place. The FDA has recently lowered the threshold for certain bacteria often found in raw milk cheese from 100MPN per gram to 10MPN per gram.  That’s a pretty big drop. From cheesemakers to scientists, almost everybody agrees that the basis for this change is flawed and lacking justification, but sadly the good ol FDA doesn’t always operate in the most logical of ways.Unfortunately, this is happening at the very same time that many of the best, small production, raw, artisanal European cheeses are becoming threatened by political pressure from a few giant dairy companies pushing for pasteurized milk versions of the classics. With price pressure coming from above and regulations cracking down on what they can sell, small producers in Europe are a dying breed. It’s worrying that this might be another case of the big guys beating up on the little ones.  It is going to be interesting to see where it all goes, and needless to say, we’re watching it all closely.  It’s not all bad news however. With our focus on artisanal American cheeses, we’re not seeing a big change on our counter (yet), and we couldn’t be more proud to champion the ‘little guys’ and what they do so well. The small farms here in the US fortunately operate at incredibly advanced levels of cleanliness and with technology available that few elsewhere have access to.  At least for now, this enables most of them to continue doing what they are doing and get their amazing offerings our way.  While cheese doesn’t need to be raw milk (and we’ve never been able to sell any under 60 days old, the FDA limit), the bacteria in raw milk cheeses does add a certain “je ne sais quoi” and complexity that would be horribly sad to not be able to enjoy. But for now, we have a shop full of incredible raw milk offerings, and we plan to eat as much as possible while we still can :-)