Slow Food in Australia…will start a fight, and I am asking you to support it, to give a hand, because what we are doing with this fight will change things a little. It is just a small fight. We must allow Australian cheesemakers to make their cheese with raw milk. When you pasteurise milk you deprive it of its soul. There is no difference anymore. Instead, what can you taste with raw milk? 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.
- Carlo Petrini
Slow Food international president and founder
Sydney, 18 Oct 2009
SLOW Food’s campaign to maintain and extend Australian artisan cheesemakers’ right to produce – and for consumers to eat – Australian raw milk cheese has moved to its second phase.
National food regulatory agency Food Standards Australia New Zealand is now considering responses to its raw milk products first assessment report, released in December 2009.
- Read FSANZ’s report and Slow Food’s Australian raw milk cheese campaign response, lodged in March 2010.
Background
Slow Food’s Australian Raw Milk Cheese project co-ordinator Michael Croft says milk had been fundamental to human nutrition and health for millennia.
‘The domestication of cattle, sheep, goats and other mammals has given us a unique partnership,’ Croft says. ‘We draw sustenance from it every day. We drink fresh milk and cream. We eat butter and cheese. Milk is at the very heart of human life.
‘When skilfully made, ripening and maturing at its own pace, and developing flavours and textures of complexity and length, cheese retains the inherent and distinctive 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 primary food.
‘The Australian cheese we eat today is pasteurised, sanitised and uniform. Technology and scientific understanding have been used to limit our choice of cheese. We cannot make and market Australian raw milk cheese. We cannot taste it. We are denied the experience of the unique characteristics of this primary food.’
Food Standards Australia New Zealand – the authority responsible for Australian food regulation – is to decide early 2011 if food standards are to be changed to enable the making and sale of Australian cheese from raw milk.
‘Government regulates the food we eat,’ Croft says. It is responsible for public health,’ he said. ‘We call on government to liberate our cheesemakers, not to harness them.’
Slow Food in Australia supports strong milk production, manufacturing, processing, labelling and quarantine laws.
‘We would not want to jeopardise our enviable reputation as a ‘clean food’ nation,’ Croft says. ‘But we already allow raw milk hard-curd cheeses from France and Italy to be imported into this country. Why should our burgeoning artisan cheesemakers be denied the right to make and market Australian cheese from our own raw milk?’
‘We have an opportunity to encourage food diversity, build skills and knowledge, and return opportunity to Australia’s rural heartland.
‘We want goverment to allow Australian dairies to make and market raw milk cheese of quality. We call on government to enable our cheesemakers and consumers to choose.’
Croft says Slow Food in Australia is devising ways to assist artisan cheesemakers wanting to make cheese from raw milk, including advice and support for dairy process analysis.
‘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,’ he says.
‘We encourage artisan cheesemakers and cheese-eaters to join our campaign.’
How you can help us
Sign:
- our on-line petition
Download and distribute:
- Australian raw milk cheese project multiple signature petition
- Australian raw milk cheese media statement 11 Nov 2009
Make yourself aware
Read information from Food Standards Australia New Zealand:
- Raw milk assessment brief Jul 2008
- Primary production and processing standards assessment overview
- FSANZ raw milk products discussion paper Aug 2008
Report and submission
Read:
FSANZ first assessment report Dec 2009
Slow Food’s Australian raw milk cheese campaign response: submission Mar 2010
Make your views known
FSANZ first assessment report was open for public comment from Dec 2009 to 5 Mar 2010. Its second assessment report will be available later in 2010. It will also be open for public comment. To register your views and interest, contact:
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Christina Belperio, senior food scientist, food safety
T 02 6271 2222
F 02 6271 2278
Email
Support Slow Food’s Australian raw milk cheese project
Write, email or telephone:
Michael Croft
Co-ordinator, Australian Raw Milk Cheese Project
Post Office 4015 Weston ACT 2611
M 0413 387 686
Email