Guest columnist/opinion:
Industry Issues
Raw milk cheesemakers work together to develop standards, help each other

Jeff Roberts is a member of the board of directors of Slow Food USA. He is author of The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese (Chelsea Green: 2007) and co-founder and principal consultant to the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese at the University of Vermont. He is a guest columnist for this week’s issue of Cheese Market News®.

When FDA decided in the 1990s to examine its regulations regarding the production and sale of raw milk cheese, it galvanized specialty cheesemakers across the nation.

Current federal regulations ­— which haven’t changed — require that all domestically-produced or import raw milk cheese must be aged for 60 days at a minimum temperature of 35 degrees F; for those aged less than 60 days, the regulations mandate pasteurized milk.

When FDA raised questions several years ago about whether pathogens can survive beyond the 60-day period and suggested the current rule might be revised, it brought several food groups together.

In 2000, the American Cheese Society (ACS), Oldways Preservation Trust and the Cheese Importers Association established the Cheese of Choice Coalition to conduct scientific research to address these issues and advocate for continued domestic production and import of raw milk cheese. The Coalition hired Dr. Catherine Donnelly, an authority on Listeria, to review research and investigate the history of foodborne illnesses attributable to cheese. She found the documented illnesses resulted from poor milk handling after pasteurization, not from inherent problems with raw milk cheese.

Another group fighting for the preservation of raw milk cheese was Slow Food USA, which is part of an international movement to celebrate and preserve the bio-diversity of regional foods around the world. Slow Food International began in 1986 as a response to industrialized, standardized foods that threaten to sweep away centuries of culture, history, and taste. Since then, Slow Food has grown to 80,000 members and works across the globe to ensure the future of small-scale agriculture, the working landscape and the people who grow and produce food.

While making an important difference to FDA’s position, ACS, raw milk cheese producers, and Slow Food leaders also looked for additional ways to collaborate around the issue and protect the right to make raw milk cheese. In 2002, Judy Schad, owner of Capriole and an ACS board member, agreed to serve as a liaison between the ACS and Slow Food USA. A committee was formed that included Schad; Debra Dickerson of 3 – D Cheese; Slow Food leaders Marsha Weiner, Hansjakob Werlen and Todd Wickstrom; and Slow Food USA staff member Robert LaValva.

The committee decided to organize a group of small-scale raw milk cheese producers, and in 2003, Slow Food USA launched the American Raw Milk Farmstead Cheese Consortium. The initiative emphasized such criteria as high-quality, distinctive cheeses; humane care of animals; pasture-grazing; and licensed producers. By the end of the year, the consortium counted 35 raw milk farmstead cheesemakers as members.

In 2004, the committee began a process to develop more exacting criteria and to engage additional raw milk cheesemakers. One change broadened the consortium to include all artisan producers of raw milk cheese, not just farmstead. Second, a presidium was created based upon Slow Food International’s worldwide program to defend and sustain quality agriculture and the biodiversity of foods.

Producers and consumers join together to create local presidia for coffee, salt, fish and turkeys, among other foods. These presidia provide everything from education to public relations to technical services. Producers establish criteria for how a particular food is grown, raised or made, and these guidelines govern the group’s internal workings.

In the United States, the presidium concept took a slightly different path. Rather than a focus on one type of cheese, for example, Parmigiano-Reggiano or Ragusano, or a specific locale, the new Presidium emphasized the use of raw milk and its value to distinctive cheeses. At the same time, several cheesemakers asked for expanded criteria to govern animal health, milk quality, and other values.

In 2004, Slow Food USA, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Center for Sustainable Communities, and four other partners established Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT). One of RAFT’s principal projects was to support American presidia, including raw milk cheese. In 2006, RAFT funding enabled a group of raw milk cheesemakers to organize, consider existing criteria and establish a process and timetable to invite new members.

The Presidium gathering included Judy Schad, Andy Kehler, Helen and Rick Feete, Jennifer Bice, Cary Bryant, David Gremmels, Jon Wright and Gari and Mark Fischer and Slow Food volunteers and staff including Debra Dickerson, Makale Faber, Robert LaValva and Jeff Roberts.

The committee agreed to operate as the Presidium steering committee, and Capriole’s Judy Schad and Rogue Creamery’s Cary Bryant volunteered to become the cheesemaker leaders. The group approved new principles and protocols that emphasize land and animal stewardship, guidelines for milk and cheese quality and implementation of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points programs. The committee introduced the Presidium at the 2006 ACS conference in Portland.

Paraphrasing the protocols:

• We established a Slow Food Presidium to preserve and advance the art of making raw milk cheese. The Presidium is a wholly voluntary association.

• Cheeses attain the greatest complexity when produced through processes that stem from biological diversity.

• Technology and scientific understanding can be used to guide and monitor rather than to control and dominate. By respecting the diversity in our soil, pastures and woodlands, herds and flocks, and raw milk, we can produce cheeses as nutritious, safe and wholesome to consume as they are flavorful.

• Presidium members are committed to produce high-quality, safe raw milk cheese. We voluntarily institute HACCP plans to ensure the entire cheesemaking process from animal health to sales results in a safe product without requiring pasteurization or thermolization of milk.

The Presidium invites any American producer of raw milk cheese to join and participate. Because of changes to the original criteria, both current and prospective members must complete an application and Affirmation of Protocol Principles. We plan to transmit these documents directly to approximately 175 raw milk cheese producers. All documents must be received by Jan. 31, 2007, prior to the steering committee meeting in February.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.