Cheese is about to get a lot more tasty

Which of the above cheese aren’t you allowed to eat?

If they were made from raw milk then none. But if proposals put forward by Food Standards ANZ (FANZ) go through only the hard and semi hard cheeses. And you won’t be able to buy (legally) raw milk altogether.

The world is divided as to whether unpasteurized milk products are dangerous or not because all sorts of allegedly nasty bugs live in it. Really though it isn’t necessarily a problem with modern hygiene and more sustainable farming practices.

What pasteurization means is taking milk to a high temperature for short time (usually at least 71.7C or 161F for 15–20 seconds) or Ultra high pasteurization at 135C or 275F for at least one second which is what that nasty UHT milk is.

The proponents of raw milk, which by definition hasn’t been heated above 40C (104F), say that it has many benefits to the body, the natural bacteria in our tummies and actually help people with allergies. I drink it myself when I can get hold of it and can’t speak highly enough of it for flavour and creaminess. If you ever get the chance texturing (frothing) raw milk to the standard temperature of about 65.5C to 68C (150-155F) for your latte the sweetness of your coffee will be a revelation.

There are four options for FANZ. It can stick with the current rules which provide a loophole for some raw milk cheeses, allow very hard raw milk cheeses only, allow very hard and hard cheeses only and finally pretty much everything including raw milk and soft cheeses.

In its risk analysis it seems that FANZ could live with very hard and hard raw milk cheeses being allowed because as long as all the correct processing standards are met nasty bugs won’t thrive in them.

The problem it has, with the exception of raw milk soft goats cheese, is with raw cows milk itself and soft cheeses made from it.

In Australia we now produce some excellent cheeses as you can see from this Top 10 list.

By alloying cheesemakers to use raw milk’ it will contribute to greater diversity and better tasting cheese. Like anything that feeds from the products on the land whether it be grapes, goats or cows there is a terroir. Even when it has been raining hard I can taste the added richness to the organic cows milk yoghurt I buy, thanks to the added richness of the pasture they eat.

You’ll even notice seasonal changes as the diet of cows change and in autumn and early winter the milk in your latte will develop large bubbles and quickly deteriorate in appearance.

If you’ve ever been so ill that you’ve soiled your mobile phone in addition to your bed, then you’ll know why food safety is important. And I support that. But I can’t help but think with the strict food production and handling environment that we have in Australia the risks of raw milk are overstated.