Camembert Wars: if this is progress, I'll take mine pasteurized
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The AFP is reporting today that “real” camembert makers can rejoice. In addition to reducing the geographic boundaries of the camembert region, now the only camembert makers that will be recognized with the prestigious AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) label will:
- use only raw milk;
- have at least half of the cows providing the milk from Normandy origin; and,
- ensure that their cows graze on Normandy pastures for at least 6 months of the year and fed hay the remainder of the time.
The grazing restrictions are new to the AOC conditions. I find them particularly surprising as research has shown that grass-fed or not, all cows can carry E. coli O157:H7.
The “real camembert” supporters apparently found the decision to be “undeniable progress.” Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère, two large companies that previously produced more than 80% of AOC Camembert, decided last year to begin heat-treating their milk as a safety measure.
Francophiles, can read today's original story for themselves. The French clearly articulate that the raw milk camembert has a velvety taste compared to the pasteurized version, but that the traditional methods are more onerous because they require various testing measures to avoid pathogens such as listeria. According to my favorite food safety advisor, you cannot test your way to safe food. The new and improved camembert will have enhanced risks.
Making Love or Making Camembert
In an interview for CNN yesterday, the mayor of Saint-Loup de Fribois, France, Philippe Meslon said, "A camembert not made out of raw milk is like making love without sex.” This story, “France milks cheese for all its worth,” tracks the camembert business in Normandy and the struggle to earn the coveted Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée.
While I totally appreciate the tradition involved in making lait cru camembert (and personally love the taste), I still applaud the largest cheesemakers such as Lactalis and Isigny Sainte-Mère for choosing to heat-treat their milk. That safety measure meant that they consequently lost their AOC (“real camembert”) label, but it also meant significantly reducing the risks for their many consumers.
The mayor of Saint-Loup also says a Frenchman is “someone who cultivates with modern evolution his past. It's someone who protects moral values, cultural values and artistic values, and when I say cultural values I would include camembert." That’s a nicely ambivalent statement supporting a staple of his region’s economy.
Normand cheesemaker, François Durand has 40 cows and the AOC label. He proudly claims that making cheese is about not cutting corners. "You have to have the passion. Yes it's difficult because it means a lot of work. We make it all by hand.”
With recent changes in the large “industrial” cheeses, however, some camembert makers have been driven out of business. Michel Delorme says the new and stricter rules combined with his age made him stop producing handmade camembert. Although Durand misses his cheese, he’s kept some souvenirs such as his milk cans to remember his cheesemaking days.
Passion is important and nostalgia is nice, but the hundreds of years of tradition that go into camembert making in France need to include food safety practices to protect both French culture and consumers.
Do happy cows make happy milk?
Are humans safer when they’re happy? Are you?
Ok. Now follow this logic…
Are cows?
I’m willing to go along with the California Cow commercial that claims “Great cheese comes from happy cows” and maybe even the only happy cows in the world come from California. Why not – the weather is nice and the people are laid-back. But does that necessarily mean their milk is safer?
In a post today on http://wewantorganicfood.com/
author, Lynn Cameron says, “If there could be a master key to safe raw milk, I think it would be contented cows.” The author contends that today, some raw milk is unsafe because some cows spend their days indoors, “living on field corn and soybeans to the degradation of their milk and the degeneration of the nation’s health.” I guess this is something akin to the cubicle complex.
Call me a skeptic, but I really need some science to back up this happy feeling. It’s nice to think that happy cows frolicking on the hill cannot produce anything bad. The author of the article rightfully makes a call to our nostalgia – to a happier time before farming was industrialized. Nostalgia is nice, but it does not make food safer. While Cameron says, “It’s not complicated science to understand that quality of life as well as diet affects cows’ milk quality,” her inability to produce that uncomplicated science leaves me completely unconvinced. This kind of thinking, that cows “raised entirely outdoors on green grass and/or hay, their milk is proven time and again greatly reduced in pathogens (bad bacteria),” has really not been proven as explained by David Renter in September 2006. “Cattle raised on diets of ‘grass, hay and other fibrous forage’ do contain E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in their feces as do other animals including deer, sheep, goats, bison, opossum, raccoons, birds, and many others.”
I’m completely in favor of good conditions and happy cows – who wouldn’t be? But even in the best conditions, microbiological contamination can happen – just as it happens in very happy homes with very content cooks. “Confinement cows” or “happy cows,” the only scientifically proven measure to reduce the risk of dangerous pathogens in milk is pasteurization.
Cheese pornographers don't know poop
Murray's Cheese in New York City perpetuates poop.
At Murray's, we take pride in the quality of our products and strive to provide our customers not only with exceptional food but also the knowledge to become a happy, healthy eater.
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The latest blog post from Murray's -- and some past ones would be hilarious except that their BS has serious public health consequences -- regurgitates crap about E. coli O157:H7 not being found in grass-fed cattle.
Cows poop E. coli O157:H7 -- regardless of diet.
Raw milk goat cheese leads to listeria
The Quebec ministry of agriculture is warning people not to eat raw milk goat cheese from La Ferme écologique coop d'Ulverton located on Route 143 in Ulverton after a case of Listeria monocytogenes food poisoning was reported in the Montreal area.
Laboratory tests on the raw milk cheese from the Ulverton coop revealed the presence of listeria.
The ministry said the dairy coop does not have the required permit to make cheese destined for consumers and that people should not eat cheese from producers who are not licensed. Only raw milk cheese produced in licensed factories can be consumed safely.
As Amy noted in June, some of the major French producers have switched to using heated milk to reduce the risk of disease. Lactilis’ spokesperson, Luc Morelon said that although they recognize the importance of Camembert traditions, they’re making the change,
“[b]ecause consumer safety is paramount, and we cannot guarantee it 100 per cent. We cannot accept the risk of seeing our historic brands disappearing because of an accident in production." In response to his critics Morelon added, “I don't want to risk sending any more children to hospital. It's as simple as that."
Cheese should not be made in a bathtub
The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that a Southern California couple is facing criminal charges after allegedly being caught with 375 pounds of “bathtub” cheese at an open-air market in San Bernardino County, says.
The illegal soft cheese products are known to cause serious illness such as listeria, salmonella or E. coli.
The 375 pounds of seized illegal cheese included panela, queso fresco and queso oxaca varieties, the CDFA says. It was a significant find, the department says.
Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible. Expectant mothers should be especially guarded, as the listeria organism can cause miscarriages.
"Cheese is the new cool ... You simply cannot make a food that is too posh or too expensive"
The Toronto Star reports that Alex James, 39, bassist with British supergroup Blur and who once billed himself as "the second drunkest member of the drunkest band in Britain," is talking British cheese.
James was quoted as telling The Independent last week that cheese is the new cool, adding,
"The music business is a sinking battleship. It is a complete contrast to the food industry, which is just so buoyant. You simply cannot make a food that is too posh or too expensive."
James' journey through the careful art of curdling milk is the subject of The Cheese Diaries, a series of videos undertaken for The Guardian (and viewable online at YouTube) in tandem with connoisseur Juliet Harbutt, one of Britain's foremost cheese experts.
Harbutt, who occasionally gives lectures on cheese in France, was further quoted as saying the British revival is sometimes galling to Gallic sensibilities "because the French are still totally confident that they invented cheese and are the only ones who make it properly. I enjoy reminding them that they learned it from the Romans, just as England did."
WoooooooooHoooooooooo
