Rebuffed Roquefort set for Australian re-release
proposal to reintroduce one of France's most famous exports,
Roquefort cheese, ten years after it was initially banned, Tom
Armitage reports.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the region's food standards regulator, has proposed a plan to overhaul its current food safety code following a request in 2003 from the French Ministry for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Rural Affairs to reinstate Roquefort onto the Australian dairy market.
A number of food scientists have previously claimed that cheeses made from raw milk are more susceptible to certain food pathogens, including E.coli, campylobactor and listeria, than their pasteurised alternatives.
Accordingly, FSANZ's current regulations stipulate that all cheeses (including some imported varieties) must be made using milk that has been heat-treated for fifteen seconds (pasteurised) to eliminate any potential microbiological hazards.
Roquefort is a soft, blue-veined cheese and is made using unpasteurised ewe's milk.
One Australian advocate of European blue cheese, Will Studd, slammed suggestions that its consumption was linked to adverse health effects: "Roquefort is the most popular blue cheese in France. This is very, very positive news that some common sense has come into the situation."
Carol Barnao, director of New Zealand's Food Safety Authority's dairy products division, noted that a further fourteen applications for European speciality cheeses produced using raw milk had been lodged.
If the proposals receive no public objections and the changes are approved, Roquefort could be re-introduced to Australian consumers as early as October.
Furthermore, a successful regulation amendment could spawn a number of similar applications from Australian dairy producers seeking to exploit the burgeoning popularity of European-style speciality cheeses.
French dairy group Lactalis, the world's eighth biggest dairy company, for instance, generates around €2.2 billion per year from exports of its speciality cheese brands (including its popular Société Roquefort brand) - representing 40 per cent of its €5.5 billion total turnover.
Australian dairy sector analysts estimate that prospective demand for Roquefort would be in the region of just 20-30 tons per year, while French consumers, by comparison, consume an estimated 1.45 million tons of blue cheese per year.
In 1998, the Australian and New Zealand authorities amended the code to allow the sale of Swiss cheeses gruyère, emmenthal and sbrinz - all of which are made using unpasteurised milk.
These hard cheeses have a longer maturation process than their soft alternatives, as well as containing lower moisture and acidity levels - making them more resistant to the growth of certain food pathogens.
