A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry August 1999
Contents: Refrigerated retail cabinets | Cheese from unpasteurised milk and listeriosis | Alicyclobacillus spp. - a source of flavour taints in acidic foods | Dioxins in food | Volatile nitrosamines in food and drink | Disinfection of seeds for sprouting
Cheese from unpasteurised milk and listeriosis
The October 1995 issue of Food Safety and Hygiene carried a brief report of the first well documented outbreak of listeriosis in France linked to cheese made from raw milk. Earlier outbreaks in France had been linked to meat products. World Food Regulation Review 8 (12) 1999 reports another incident in which two people have died and a third was hospitalised in a critical condition due to Listeria monocytogenes found in unpasteurised milk cheeses produced by two separate dairies. World Food Regulation Review 9 (2) 1999 reports that three executives of the one cheese company in Burgundy have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and remanded in custody.
Sales of the branded cheeses, which are marketed under a French quality and origin label, have plummeted nationwide.
In a recent Position Statement on Food Safety and Cheese the Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK) published a table of documented cheese associated outbreaks of foodborne illness since 1983 (Food Science and Technology Today 12 (2) 1998 117). Of the nineteen cases listed, fourteen are attributed to cheeses made either wholly or partially from unpasteurised milk. Three of the incidents reported were due to listeriosis and this latest incident brings the total to four out of twenty. Other organisms implicated have included a number of Salmonella species and enterotoxigenic E. coli.
The IFST concludes in its Position Statement that while 'the safety of cheese may be compromised by post- pasteurisation contamination, it considers that, except in the case of low- risk cheeses such as Parmesan, the total health risk to the consumer is less from cheese made from properly pasteurised milk than from cheese of similar composition made from unpasteurised milk'.
It is difficult to argue with this conclusion and one hopes it receives due consideration in the current review of food standards.
Food Science Australia
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