FDA restrictions keeping some great cheeses out of stores
Los Angeles cheese counters could soon be a lot less aromatic, with several popular cheeses falling victim to a more zealous U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Roquefort — France’s top-selling blue — is in the agency’s cross hairs along with raw-milk versions of Morbier, St. Nectaire and Tomme de Savoie.
Of course, French creameries haven’t changed their recipes for any of these classic cheeses. But their wheels are flunking now because the FDA has drastically cut allowances for a typically harmless bacterium by a factor of 10.
click here for the full article: http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-new-fda-regulations-cheeses-20140903-story.html
Swiss turn to DNA fingerprinting to protect their cheese.
Swiss cheesemakers’ weapon against forgeries is housed at minus 80 degrees Celsius in a Bern freezer. It’s here where scientists keep 10,000 strains of milk bacteria to guard against copycats.
The country’s cheese industry, worth 604 million Swiss francs ($706 million) in exports last year, has turned to DNA fingerprinting to fight counterfeits, which Emmental producers estimate have cost them as much as 20 million https://me.mtw.nhs.uk/order-suhagra/ francs.
Forgeries are contributing to declining revenue for an industry that’s already beleaguered because of high production costs and the rise in value of the Swiss franc, which makes the country’s cheese more expensive abroad. About 10 per cent of cheese labeled as Swiss-made Emmental on supermarket shelves is fake, estimates association Switzerland Cheese Marketing.
click here for the full article: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/swiss-turn-to-dna-fingerprinting-to-protect-their-cheese-20140827-1090gh.html