FRANCE: Could France be losing its cheese - a Camembert meltdown could take the taste out of Frenchness and kill a centuries' old tradition

Record ID: 1532930

  • Title: FRANCE: Could France be losing its cheese - a Camembert meltdown could take the taste out of Frenchness and kill a centuries' old tradition
  • Date: 24th August 2007
  • Summary: (L!2) PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 21, 2007) (REUTERS) CUSTOMERS EATING OUTSIDE PIERRE'S CHEESE RESTAURANT VARIOUS OF WAITER SERVING PLATTER OF CHEESE PLATE OF CHEESE (SOUNDBITE) (French) CUSTOMER MARC BUSINAN SAYING: "Historically raw milk cheese has been eaten for a very long time, so no, that doesn't worry me at all. And it's true that pasteurised milk cheese is more bland, there is less taste, there is less tonality in the taste. It's like a mixed whisky, a single malt whisky." PLATE OF CHEESE
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2007 09:10
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Industry,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA5SPB2DS2VKTZDK9IYPKZ7FCQ3
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: The countryside of north-western France seems peaceful and placid, but in recent months anger has been brewing in the rolling green fields of Normandy.
    At the heart of the controversy: a local pride, the king of French cheeses, the Camembert and at stake, hundreds of years of tradition.
    The region has a long history of producing dairy products. Legend has it that Marie Harel, a young farmer's wife in the town of Camembert, produced the first Camembert in 1791, given the secret recipe by a monk who was fleeing the new republic after the Revolution.
    Traditionally the cheese was made from the raw milk of the local Norman cows, but in the past 50 years things have changed, with pasteurised versions completely taking over. Out of 120,000 tons of Camembert now produced each year in France, only 5 percent is made from raw milk.
    Only this small proportion can lay claim to the "Appellation d'Origine Control����e" (AOC) label, a strict measure of quality demanding that the product conform to a stringent set of regulations, including the use of raw milk.
    Small producers eulogize about the flavours the Norman grass brings to the cheese and AOC labelled Camembert can also be sold at higher prices than their pasteurised counterparts.
    In big cheese factories, mechanisation has already replaced most workers. The Lactailis group is the biggest dairy producer in Europe and one of its smallest production facilities in Normandy churns out around 18,000 cheeses a day.
    Lactalis is constantly trying to find solutions to meet increasing market demands and cut costs.
    The recent controversy was sparked by Lactalis' decision to stop using raw milk in one of its premium Camembert, the Lanquetot.
    In a new procedure the milk is gently heated without actually reaching the pasteurisation point usually used for mass-produced Camembert. This eliminates the harmful bacteria and results in a safer cheese that is more conducive to export.
    The company argues that this milder heating produces a Camembert that tastes just as good as that made from raw milk.
    "We believe that food security is of absolute priority, and considering that today, in the production facilities like the one you have visited, it is difficult to give an absolute 100% guarantee of food safety. So that's the reason we have taken this decision, which is a decision that does not change the product, but is an important decision in terms of food safety," explained Lactalis spokesperson Luc Morelon.
    However, Lactalis has requested to be allowed to keep the traditional high quality AOC label for this new variety of the cheese, leading to accusations of cheating and treachery from smaller producers.
    Not far from the Lactalis factory is the production facility of R����ault.
    Here the cheeses are made from raw milk, following the strict AOC criteria, and sold in specialised cheese shops across France.
    Production methods are still very close to the age-old techniques. The cheese is hand ladled into the moulds, and very little machinery is used. Each cheese is unique, varying from season to season and from worker to worker.
    But making Camembert with raw milk is expensive. It is harder to produce, more temperamental, and the stringent tests at each stage of production are costly, making it unsuitable for mass production.
    "We try to produce a product, a cheese, a true cheese, that is different, that has character. And our colleagues are more industrialised, and obviously for them the use of raw milk is difficult in terms of reaching a high level of productivity, and they tend to want to perform treatments to increase productivity, large scale industrial production of their product; that is, Normandy Camembert," explained R����ault director Bertrand Gillot.
    The real victim in all this could be the end consumer. Since Lactalis' decision to stop using raw milk, traditional Camembert have all but disappeared from supermarket shelves.
    Last year the first "cheese girls" calendar was produced in an attempt to draw attention to the disappearance of variety in French cheeses, and Veronique Richez Lerouge, head of the association for the protection of rural cheeses, is now in the process of preparing the 2008 edition.
    "On the cheese labels of the past the woman, the image of the woman was a strong presence. So I had the idea of - clearly, provocation, the provocation of the cheese maker, in inverted commas. I want to excite public opinion, to grab the consumer and tell them that there is a real danger today of losing raw milk cheese. We have to do something, there has to be... people have to consume in a different way, they have to look at what they are buying, so the best way was obviously to provoke them in some way, but also to do it in an artistic, poetic way," she said.
    Customers at Pierre's cheese restaurant in Paris, which serves only the finest raw milk cheeses, said that pasteurisation can only damage the variety of French cheese.
    "Historically raw milk cheese has been eaten for a very long time, so no, that doesn't worry me at all. And it's true that pasteurised milk cheese is more bland, there is less taste, there is less tonality in the taste. It's like a mixed whisky, a single malt whisky," said a customer, Marc Businan.
    In the coming weeks the AOC controlling body will gather all the main players in the Camembert industry to discuss the possibility of revising the regulations.
    But will they stand by the old techniques, or could it be that raw milk will no longer be an absolute requirement to produce "true"
    Camembert? Could hundreds of years of pride and tradition come to an end? The answer could come this autumn.
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