Initiatives
Specialist Cheesemakers Initiative
The Specialist Cheesemakers Initiative was started to help those making specialist cheeses in the UK.
The Prince is Patron of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association and wanted to enhance the understanding of the difficulties encountered by cheese-makers in meeting food safety standards while making good quality cheese.
It was hoped that by having practical experience and appreciation of the cheese-making process, environmental health officers will be able to help the cheese-makers develop strategies to overcome their difficulties and to ensure the safety of their end-product.
The course, which lasts for three days, highlights the practicalities of handling liquid milk, curds, whey and cheese and the key safety and hygiene practices which need to be applied. As well as the practical cheese-making sessions, there is also a series of lectures and workshops addressing the theoretical issues and exploring the food safety management issues.
To date, 120 officers from 77 different local authorities have attended one of the ten courses run since November 2000. Courses are limited to twelve participants, all of whom are selected and invited by the Food Standards Agency.
Many of the participants come from small, rural local authorities based in areas where farmers are seizing the opportunity to diversify into speciality cheese-making, but are in need of a great deal of guidance on meeting food safety standards.
The course is evaluated each time it is run and the majority of participants have considered it to be “excellent”.