Cheese

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*How Could FDA Possibly Ban Raw Milk Cheeses Now?**

*

It’s been more than six years since the US Food and Drug Administration

stated that it was going to be reviewing its longstanding policy that

allows the use of unpasteurized milk in cheesemaking. It’s now time for

FDA to end that review and leave things as is.

That’s not necessarily what FDA will end up doing, but it seems like it

should be the only logical outcome based on Australia’s recent decision

to allow the sale of Roquefort in that country. That decision, recently

issued by the agency Food Standards Australia New Zealand, appears to

make it almost impossible for FDA to now come out with restrictions on

raw milk cheeses.

On the surface, it might seem wise for FDA to be reviewing its policy

regarding raw milk cheeses. That policy — which allows the use of

unpasteurized milk in the manufacture of certain cheeses provided they

have been aged for a minimum of 60 days at a minimum temperature of 35

degrees F — is, after all, more than half a century old.

But on the basis of what FSANZ concluded, it seems unwise and a waste of

precious FDA resources to continue pursuing the study of raw milk

cheeses, which has been ongoing for several years. FDA now has at least

two compelling reasons to stop its review.

The first reason is simply the conclusion of FSANZ: that the assessment

of the safety of Roquefort cheese “concluded that the sale of this

cheese would pose a low risk to the public health and safety of

Australian consumers.”

Keep in mind that this conclusion was reached by an agency that

represents two very advanced food industries, those of Australia and New

Zealand (although the decision actually only applies to Australia).

These are two of the leading dairy countries in the world, so they would

hardly rush to judgment on something this important.

Indeed, FSANZ’s final assessment report runs an impressive 193 pages.

That includes about 48 pages explaining the problem and potential

solutions, background, impact analysis, conclusions and recommendations,

and implementation and review.

It also includes almost 150 pages of “attachments,” ranging from a

scientific evaluation of the safety of Roquefort cheese that runs more

than 60 pages, to a review of safety control measures implemented by the

Confederation of Roquefort Producers and enforced by the French

government, which runs almost 40 pages.

If that 193-page report isn’t enough for FDA, well, there’s plenty more

reading material available from FSANZ. Earlier in this regulatory

process, FSANZ made an initial assessment of the application to allow

Roquefort sales in March of 2004; and then made a draft assessment in

March of this year.

And after all of this effort, FSANZ concluded that the sale of Roquefort

poses a low risk to public health. Logic tells us that a brief review of

Roquefort’s safety history would reach the same conclusion, but FSANZ

went to all the trouble of examining the regulatory and industry

management framework for the safe production of Roquefort and verified

this through an on-site audit in France.

In other words, this is about as thorough a review of a single raw milk

cheese as we’ve seen in many, many years. And this particular raw milk

cheese has been deemed safe for consumers (or at least a “low risk”).

The second reason FDA should now stop its review of raw milk cheeses is

because of one of the sections of the FSANZ review. That fairly brief

section deals with the World Trade Organization.

Australia, like the US, is a member of the WTO, and is obligated to

notify WTO member nations where proposed mandatory regulatory measures

are inconsistent with any existing or imminent international standards

and the proposed measure may have a significant effect on trade.

In its final assessment report, FSANZ said it considers that permitting

the sale of Roquefort cheese is likely to have a “significant effect on

international trade as this will permit the sale of Roquefort cheese in

Australia and remove a barrier to trade which has disadvantaged another

WTO member.”

When it comes to trade, the US is all about tearing down barriers and

leveling playing fields, at least from a rhetorical standpoint. Why,

just last week a couple of high-ranking government officials used these

old saws in testimony at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.

Regarding that point about tearing down barriers, here’s how US Trade

Representative Rob Portman sees it: “I can assure you I am committed to

rebuilding the bipartisan consensus on trade so together we can knock

down global trade barriers for our farmers and ranchers.”

As far as leveling the playing field, here’s how US Secretary of

Agriculture Mike Johanns sees it: “This is the time to make substantial

progress in leveling the playing field.” And Portman also weighed in on

that level playing field: “I will not sign on to any agreement that does

not provide a more level playing field.”

Taken together, these US positions mean two things when it comes to raw

milk cheeses: there can be no ban on imports of raw milk cheese,

including Roquefort, when other countries such as Australia are actually

removing such barriers; and there can be no new domestic limits on the

production of raw milk cheeses, because to allow the continued import of

these products while banning or further restricting their domestic

production would be to create an unlevel playing field.

If that’s not enough to stop FDA from rethinking its policy on raw milk

cheeses, perhaps what the agency could do is copy the French regulatory

and industry approaches on Roquefort. If that’s enough to satisfy FSANZ

as well as the French government and French manufacturers and exporters

of Roquefort, it should be enough to satisfy

FDA as well as US producers and marketers of raw milk cheeses. •

Cheese Reporter welcomes letters to the editor. E-mail your comment to

Dick Groves at dgroves @cheesereporter.com

. Past editorials and other

information can be found at www.cheesereporter.com.