Strict processing conditions needed after raw milk cheese ban lifted

A ban on some types of raw-milk cheese has been lifted in Australia after the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation decision to lift the ban last week.

To help raw-milk cheese manufacturers safely produce their products under the new regulations, the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) has turned its laboratory into a small-scale cheese-making factory to study which types of cheese can be made safely using unpasteurised milk.

“Food safety is essential to industry sustainability and we need to be confident that raw-milk cheese is not going to cause foodborne illnesses from contamination with pathogenic bacteria,” said Tom Ross, Associate Professor in Food Microbiology at TIA’s Food Safety Centre.

“The quality of the milk you start with is paramount. If you are going to make cheese using raw milk you need to make sure that the milk does not contain any pathogenic bacteria, like Listeria monocytogenes, and the only way to do that is to test it.

“The cheese then needs to be processed under strictly controlled conditions to achieve the needed microbiological safety standards.”

Artisan cheese-makers are often interested in making cheese from raw milk as it is believed to have more flavour and produces a distinctive regional character.

The TIA has worked with the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries and the Victorian Department of Health to identify tools that will help cheese manufacturers safely produce a wide range of raw-milk cheeses.

For more information about the TIA, visit www.utas.edu.au/tia. The TIA is a joint venture between the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian government.